Thousands of nuclear workers at sites across the UK are to be balloted for strikes in a row over pensions.
Around 16,000 members of several trade unions, mainly involved in decommissioning work, will vote in the coming weeks on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action.
The unions are protesting at plans by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to make savings of £660 million.
The workers are based at Sellafield (Cumbria), Magnox (Anglesey), Ayrshire, Dorset, Dumfriesshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Gwynedd, Kent, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Direct Rail Services (Cumbria), Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (Caithness), Low Level Waste Repository (Cumbria) and International Nuclear Services (Cumbria, Warrington).
The unions said the Government’s expectation is that the final salary pension schemes in place across the NDA estate will be reformed by April 2018.
Justin Bowden, national officer of the GMB, said: “Nuclear workers have played their part in keeping the country’s lights on for decades. Senior representatives were unanimous that if this
Government is determined to break its promises and is not prepared to negotiate, there is no alternative but to ballot members to take strike action.
“GMB remains committed to resolving these issues amicably and available for meaningful talks should the Government want to pull back from this shocking episode of broken promises to workers in the nuclear industry.”
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