Atomic weapons workers are to vote on strike action at AWE.
Atomic weapons workers are to vote on strike action at AWE after Prospect trade union described a “shambolic” reorganisation that has left staff “in the dark” and put hundreds of roles at risk.
The ballot opens on 19 January for three weeks and will ask members if they are willing to take strike action and if they would support action short of a strike. It covers staff at AWE sites including Aldermaston and Burghfield.
Prospect says the row stems from poor consultation by senior management. In November AWE told staff a restructuring programme put about 7,000 roles in scope, with around 400 to 500 redundancies expected and a further 750 posts being recruited. AWE has since increased the number of potential redundancies to 800, but, says the union, has refused to provide Prospect with the information necessary to understand and challenge the restructure.
The Ministry of Defence says the workforce is being reshaped to deliver the Government’s commitment to the nuclear deterrent and that contingency measures would be implemented in the event of industrial action.
The Government recently committed to a £15bn investment in a new nuclear warhead programme, but Prospect warns that this investment risks being derailed if the reorganisation continues to cause internal chaos.
Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said: “There are few more skilled and qualified people in the UK than the nuclear specialists at AWE, they deserve to be treated with significantly more respect by their employer and not subjected to shambolic processes such as this reorganisation.
“AWE is like a family for those who work there who take huge pride in the job they do protecting the country.
“Systematically excluding staff from any meaningful input into the process of reorganisation inevitably causes them they worry about the very future of the organisation.
“These are highly skilled experts who know their bit of the operation inside out.
“Every day they make critical decisions on issues of national security and nuclear safety, but they have been driven to the brink by the way their leaders have behaved in recent months.
“Our members deserve to be treated like the highly skilled and intelligent adults that they are, not kept in the dark about key issues that affect their future.
“If AWE do not agree to our reasonable asks then we will have no choice but to proceed with industrial action.”
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
