Somerset workers to strike for three days
Production workers at Somerset firm Trelleborg Sealing Solutions at Dunball near Bridgwater, have voted for strike action. The company, founded in 1935, makes specialist seals for high pressure engines.
65 Unite members will strike on 28th and 31st May and also on 5th June. Each strike will be for the whole day, covering all shifts from 00:01 until 23:59. Unite announced the strike dates today (Monday 13 May) after talks with the management last week ‘hit a brick wall’.
The company had offered an above inflation 2.8 per cent rise for the year starting January 2019. However Unite regional officer Tim Morris called the offer “paltry” and noted “Ironically, this dispute is taking place after senior management frankly admitted that workforce productivity has gone through the roof.” He added “The planned strikes have to be viewed in the context of this highly profitable company failing to take into account the huge increases in housing costs across Somerset. This has been compounded by the fact that previous pay increases have also failed to keep pace with inflation and wages have repeatedly fallen behind the ever rising cost of living.”
The latest filed accounts of the company to December 2017 showed profits before tax of £13.2m down from £14.2m in 2016.
The Union is hoping management will now renegotiate in the period before the first strike is planned. The total workforce of the company is 112.