Gwent | Archive | 2002 | September | 4
From the South Wales Argus, first published Wednesday 4th Sep 2002.
A GROUP of Gwent steelworkers are threatening to step up strike action in support of pension rights as delegates sought the government's backing today.
The men were again picketing the Caparo steel tubes plant at Tredegar this morning in the fourth one-day strike against the company's decision to ditch its final-salary pension scheme.
The strikes, called by the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, will now be increased to two days a week if a meeting at the arbitration service ACAS this afternoon does not resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, workers were today calling on the government to protect final-salary schemes, which guarantee a retirement pension based on an employee's best pay packet.
The company wants to introduce alternative arrangements which, the ISTC says, will mean its members being 25% worse off.
ISTC assistant general secretary Eddie Lynch told the Argus that members had rejected the company's latest offer. "These loyal, hard-working employees are prepared to make sacrifices to protect the future of the company, as they have always done so, but these must be settled by discussion and negotiation not imposed upon them." he said.
A delegation of workers, including some from Tredegar, will meet TUC general secretary John Monks and hand in a petition at No 10, Downing Street.
The company, which is owned by Labour peer Lord Paul, has said little about the dispute in public, describing the dispute as an internal matter. Several companies are abandoning final-salary schemes on grounds that they are becoming too costly.
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