LONDON: Tata Steel faces “massive disruption” warned trade unions in the UK, as they set the date for a strike over Tata Steel’s plans to close its long running pension scheme.
Strike action is set to begin on June 22, union leaders said following a meeting of the four unions that balloted over 12,000 Tata Steel workers over industrial action.
A spokesperson for the largest union, Community, confirmed that strike action on June 22 would involve a full day of stoppage — where only work essential to safety and maintaining the integrity of plants would be carried out.
The action announced so far would not rule out further strike action.
Tata Steel’s UK operations have a production capacity of around 11 million tonnes (mt) a year, against a group annual capacity of 29 mt.
Other forms of action — including a ban on overtime and not doing any work outside written agreements — could take place as early as mid next week (once legally required notices were given) that could “severely limit production,” said Roy Rickhuss, General Secretary of the Community union, as he accused the company of failing to show “any willingness to return to meaningful negotiations.”
“Tata has given us no option but to take industrial action,” he added.
Members of the Community, Unite, UCATT and GMB unions voted in favour of strike action over plans to close the defined benefit scheme.
Tata Steel had initially consulted on reforming the scheme, which has an estimated £2 billion deficit, but after failing to reach an agreement with unions began consulting on replacing it with a defined contribution scheme.
Unions said they had offered Tata Steel savings under the existing scheme but that the company had remained intent on closing the scheme.
The company has said that following consultation with employees it will soon announce steps to mitigate less popular aspects of the new system, including the end of early retirement.
We have been trying to develop an affordable and sustainable pension scheme for employees so we are very disappointed by today’s announcement,” Tata Steel said on Monday, calling on unions to reconsider industrial action.
At a time when the UK business as a whole continues to lose money and when key investments are needed to create a sustainable future for our business, we urge the unions and individual employees to think very carefully about the consequences of industrial action.”
