British Ford workers plan to strike after rejecting pay offer
- Employees rejected Ford’s offer of performance-related pay
- Unite said staff will start working on the rules and overtime ban on June 14
Hundreds of British Ford workers plan to strike later this month over a pay dispute.
Workers have ‘overwhelmingly’ rejected the car giant’s offer of performance-related pay, according to the Unite union.
Unite said staff will return to work on June 14 to rule and there will be an overtime ban, adding that the strikes will have “severe consequences” for all of Ford’s UK operations.
Rejected: Ford workers ‘overwhelmingly’ rejected auto giant’s offer of performance-related pay, says union Unite
The employees taking industrial action work at the company’s Henry Ford Academy in Daventry and factories in Dagenham and Halewood.
Strikes are also planned at Ford’s research and development facility in Dunton and its innovation center in Stratford, east London.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said Ford has “decided to try to attack our members’ pay out of sheer corporate greed.”
She added: ‘Performance-related payments do not guarantee an actual pay increase and leave these workers at risk of pay cuts.
“They are absolutely right to take industrial action, and they have the full support of Unite.”
Unite further alleged that Ford had exacerbated the dispute by failing to engage in ‘meaningful negotiations’, including with the ACAS mediation service, despite staff gaining union recognition last year.
In addition, Alison Spencer-Scragg, one of its national officials, accused the American car manufacturer of “completely ignoring” the collective agreement it signed with employees in 2023.
She said: ‘It is completely unacceptable that Ford is attempting to impose a business performance model that underestimates the contribution of this important management group to the company’s success.’
Ford said: “We regret that this has led to this outcome, given the fair and balanced offer made and the competitiveness of our LL6 pay and benefits package.
‘We will continue to engage with Unite and our staff and seek to resolve the matter.’
Ford reached a major agreement with the United Auto Workers union last November after a six-week strike that halted activity at plants in Chicago, Louisville and Wayne, Michigan.
The strike was the first national strike to hit Ford in the US since 1979 and the first to simultaneously affect all of Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ auto companies: Ford, Stellantis and General Motors.
Under the deal, Ford employees will receive a record 25 percent salary increase over four and a half years and the right to strike due to any plant closures during that period.