Trelleborg Engineering Pay Victory in Leicester

Unite members at Trelleborg engineering in Leicester have won a two-year pay deal following two strikes. As a result their planned three day strike was called off on Wednesday 26th November, with their success no doubt owing much to the workers plans to escalate their industrial action in succeeding weeks.

The deal includes:

• A back paid 1.7% increase on all rates of pay for 2014
• A one-off payment of £300
• 2% pay rise for 2015 plus a yearly bonus of up to £900 a year
• Enhanced bank holiday and Sunday rates
• One week’s bereavement pay
• Long term service awards reduced from 25 years to ten years then every five years

When asked by the Socialist about the strike action,Unite steward Mark Potter said:

“We identified the business’ weak points such as delivery schedule s and bottle necks in production. Our members informed us that they prefer 48-hour strikes not one or two hour stoppages. This was arranged and supported by 99% of the members.

“We also made all our members aware that Unite paid strike pay for full days of strike action. Most pickets stayed for around six hours with some doing around twelve hours. At times we almost had a party atmosphere on the pickets.”