MG Rover’s Longbridge plant near Birmingham in central England will face strike action for the first time in a decade after thousands of workers backed industrial action over a pay and benefits offer, the Daily Telegraph said.
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According to the paper, the Transport & General Workers Union voted 60% in favour of a strike and 75% were in favour of action short of a strike if the group does not improve its offer.
The paper said about 3,000 production line workers at Longbridge are unhappy with an improved offer of a 2.2% pay rise offer and 75% sick pay. The union points to MG Rover’s Powertrain [engine plant] workers, who receive 100% sick pay, the Telegraph added.
The union told the newspaper its workers felt “badly betrayed and let down” by the company.
MG Rover chief executive Kevin Howetold the Daily Telegraph he was “perplexed” and “gobsmacked” that the offer had not been accepted and pointed to Powertrain as a profitable part of the business, compared with the car business, which is still making sizeable losses.
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By GlobalDataBut the paper said the workers are believed to have voted so overwhelmingly partly because they resented high levels of executive remuneration – Howe is believed to have been paid more than £500,000 last year.
The Transport & General Workers’ union national secretary for the car industry Dave Osbourne reportedly : “If the position of the company determines an offer to the workforce that can only be described as abysmal, then the management should lead by example, rather than award themselves big pay hikes.”
According to the Daily Telegraph, an MG Rover spokesman yesterday insisted that the management had made its final offer.
One source familiar with the dispute told the paper: “The unions have backed themselves into a corner on the 75% sick pay deal. It was them that negotiated the reduction – two years ago when they conceded the reduction in return for higher wages.”
The paper said the GMB union – the smallest at Longbridge – voted 91% against the action while the TGW union’s Osbourne called on Rover to return to the negotiating table.
Amicus, GMB and T&G unions will meet this week to decide on the next step, the Daily Telegraph said.
The Longbridge plant, once owned by British Leyland, was infamous for its strikes during the 1970s during the reign of shop steward Derek ‘Red Robbo’ Robinson. There were around 45 separate strikes in one year alone.
