Unite ballots Ford workers for strike action

Over 5,000 Ford workers are being balloted for strike action, over job security and pensions.

Unite is balloting Ford’s hourly paid workforce, who work mainly on the production line, across the company’s six UK sites: Bridgend, Daventry, Halewood, Dunton and two sites in Dagenham.

The workers are demanding commitments to job security in line with their counterparts in other EU countries and improvements in the pension scheme.

In 2012, Ford announced the end of production at its plant in Southampton and the closure of its stamping and tooling facility in Dagenham with a total loss of around 1,500 jobs and more in the supply chain. Ford workers are fed up with always bearing the brunt of cuts and are calling on the company to commit to greater job security through a legally binding information and consultation agreement.

In 2010 Ford informed Unite it intended to use the CPI (consumer price index) to calculate its inflation linked increases to pension scheme payments, rather than the more representative RPI (retail price index). Workers are now calling on the company to look at ways to improve the company pension scheme but Ford has refused to enter into discussion on the issue.

From a Unite press release