Trelleborg workers win pay rise
Strikes at Trelleborg’s factories in Tewkesbury and Dunball outside Bridgewater have ended. The industrial seal manufacturer originally offered a 5.2 per cent one year deal to its workers. That led to a series of strikes by 200 workers who are members of the Unite Union. The strikers also received support from the Swedish metal workers union IF Metall, the union in Trelleborg’s home country.
Unite has a longstanding relationship with IF Metall and says their support was instrumental in ending the dispute. Unite says that as the dispute developed they contacted IF Metall. A link was quickly established with their main shop steward at Trelleborg in Sweden. That enabled Unite reps and officials and their counterparts in IF Metall, to agree a series of steps that quickly helped resolve the dispute.
The company put a revised offer to the workers. They will receive an eight per cent pay rise this year. In the next year, pay will increase by three per cent. However renewed pay negotiations will take place if inflation continues above five per cent next year.
The new offer has been agreed by the workforce ending the strike. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “By standing together in their union, Trelleborg’s workers achieved a substantial improvement to the company’s pay offer. This deal is yet more evidence that Unite’s total focus on improving jobs, pay and conditions is putting extra money in our members’ pockets.”