The government’s nuclear weapons deterrent programme is facing a showdown with workers due to an unresolved pensions dispute.
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) has issued a warning to defence secretary Michael Fallon that there will be delays to the running of the Trident programme unless its long-running pensions dispute is resolved.
The defined benefit pension scheme at the AWE, put in place by the then-Tory government in the early 1990s, closed at the end of last month, which cut thousands of pounds off employee’s retirement incomes. It was replaced with a defined contribution scheme.
Workers at the AWE are gearing up for two days of strike action on 14 and 21 of February at AWE’s two locations at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire.
Gail Cartmail, acting general secretary of the union Unite, has written to Mr Fallon requesting an urgent meeting as workers at the AWE feel “betrayed”.
“Many of our members have given decades of service to AWE and without their skill and professionalism the Trident programme would not have been delivered,” Ms Cartmail said.
The union has proposed that the AWE workforce should be allowed to join the Principle Civil Service Pension Scheme as a way to “keep faith with a promise made by a previous Conservative government”.
“They still feel part of the Ministry of Defence providing an invaluable service for the UK, working with hazardous materials, producing and assembling the Trident nuclear warheads which is why they feel so strongly about this second class treatment,” Ms Cartmail added.
The strike ballot for Unite members closes on 24 February.
