Posted: Wed 27th Jun 2012

Prysmian Workers To Take Indefinite Strike Action In Pay Row

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jun 27th, 2012

Update: Thursday 9am

Prysmian workers have now put strike action on hold with a ballot to be held on a new pay deal.

The deal would see employees given a 2% rise in the first year and 3% rise in the second.

The ballot will take place between today and Monday, if it is rejected then strike action will resume.

Workers at Prysmian Cables are set to take indefinite strike action after talks to agree a new pay deal fell through.

Last week we reported how over 200 workers picketed outside the factory after rejecting a 1.5% pay increase.

Talks were held on Sunday between union members and management at Prysmian with an Acas representative as mediator to try and resolve the matter, but company bosses walked out after three hours.

Now Prysmian staff say they will take indefinite strike action until they receive a fair deal.

The second stage of strikes are now planned for Thursday from 9.30-10.30am, 3.30-4.30pm, 9.30-10.30pm and 3.30-4.30am the following day and will continue until matters are resolved.

John Parry, branch chair of Unite the Union at Prysmian said: “We’ve tried to take the moral high ground on all this but it runs more deeply than pay. In the past year we’ve had changes to our pensions and our pay date was changed from the 15th to the 1st of the month which we were told was going to make the company £3m.

“Last year the company made profits of £14.2m in Wrexham, which is the highest I’ve known in 22 years, it’s not about money we just want a little bit of fairness.

He added: “They made an offer of 1% this year with a further 1% if we achieved key performance indicators, which was not acceptable as a lot of those indicators we have no recourse over so it was rejected.”

“The company has also said that when we walk out on 9.30am on Thursday because the cable process is continuous they will lock out all staff involved in continuous processes. We are currently seeking legal advice on this.”

In a letter to staff Prysmian’s chief executive said: “After four periods of discontinuous industrial action, whilst also under the umbrella of a continuous overtime ban, the business has studied and evaluated the manufacturing effectiveness during these periods.

“The industrial action is in reality having the impact of being continuous because it is not possible for us to stop and restart the continuous production process in cables. Therefore faced with further escalating discontinuous action and with no end date, commencing Thursday 28th June we have decided it is impossible to run the production process efficiently in the cables business due to the continuous nature of the processes and process flows.

“Therefore from 9.30am Thursday 28th June 2012 cables production will temporarily cease until this issue is resolved. This means that this part of our business will effectively close.”



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