Members of GMB union at Sellafield back strike action

Members of the union GMB working at Sellafield have voted in favour of strike action following a dispute over pay.

The organisation said a majority of its members based at the nuclear fuel reprocessing and decommissioning site in Cumbria voted for the strike to go ahead.

A three-week ballot process found that 76% support action.

According to GMB, the vote came after Sellafield Ltd, which runs the site, ignored requests for further talks and offered a pay rise of 1.5% in June – below the the RPI inflation rate of 3.6%.

The offer was turned down by 88% of on-site GMB members.

GMB senior organiser Chris Jukes said in a statement: “Since the days of the cold war, the deal for isolated local nuclear communities like Sellafield has been that in exchange for the risks associated with nuclear waste reprocessing – which most people don’t want on their doorsteps – they had stable job opportunities, on decent terms and conditions and with secure pensions when production ceased.

“Gnawing away continually at this social contract has consequences. GMB members at Sellafield have had enough with this unfair treatment that has seen their pay fail to keep pace with inflation over recent years.”

He added: “The decision to take industrial action is never, ever taken lightly but shows the level of real anger on the site.”

GMB’s Sellafield Strike Committee is due to meet later this week to decide on a date for the first strike, which will be sometime in September.

The Unite union is also due to ballot its 2,000 members working at Sellafield for possible industrial action.

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