Over 3,000 Leonardo aerospace workers in Unite the Union are striking at sites around the UK, in Edinburgh, Yeovil, Basildon, Newcastle and Luton.
The workers are demanding a fair pay increase from a company that made 18 billion euros last year, with profits over 1.5 billion euros. Leonardo is one of the biggest defence companies in the world, yet it offered its workers just 3.2%. Workers have rejected the latest offer of 3.6%.
Eleanor Donne reports from Basildon. “Pickets told us that this is the first strike at the company for 40 years. No one on the picket line had ever been on strike before! One picket told us: ‘We just want a decent pay rise. What we are being offered is a pay cut. The company can afford it. Their profits are up and the top directors got a 31% rise.’ We brought solidarity from Essex Socialist Party, and Basildon and Thurrock Trades Council.”
Tom Baldwin adds from Yeovil: “The pickets were all in good spirits and thought very few members were going in”. From visiting the picket line at Luton, Helen Kerr reports “an upbeat and positive picket, with most people entering the site taking a leaflet from the strikers”.
Jimmy Haddow reports that the first day of the strike in Edinburgh involved as many as 200 workers in rolling numbers from 5am to 12 noon.
“The picket covered all the entrances into two sites. The pickets made a point of stopping vehicles and goods going in and talking to the drivers, and vehicles were turning around, to great cheers from the pickets. Non-union workers who arrived for work were signed up to Unite and did not go in. All the pickets I spoke to said it was their first strike.”
Socialist nationalisation
The Socialist Party Scotland leaflet pointed out that Leonardo is based in Italy, where September and October saw inspiring general strike action by the trade unions in ports, docks and railways to prevent support for the Israeli war machine. The leaflet explained the need for a “trade union-led transition in the defence and fossil fuels industries. This would be based on socialist nationalisation that would utilise the highly skilled workforce for socially useful production and technology development. Workers must be guaranteed jobs, and better terms and conditions, as well as safety.”
- Unite in BAE Systems in Lancashire were taken to court by the bosses to try to prevent strike action over a poor pay offer. Unite won in court, and selective strike action is planned from 26 November to 17 December
