The Atomic Weapons Establishment’s workers have announced their plans to stage two 48-hour strikes over its ‘broken promises’ pensions dispute.

Six hundred AWE employees and members of Unite will be striking at the company’s two sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire for 48 hours from Wednesday 18 January and again for the same amount of time on Monday 30 January, both starting at 00.01.

Ninety two per cent of unite members voted for strike action and 97 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.

AWE staff explained that they feel “deeply betrayed” as promises guaranteeing their pensions a quarter of a century ago have been broken since the scheme was transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the private sector.

The Unite members have already staged two days of strike action on the same issue on 14 November and 6 December 2016 and now want the scheme to be taken back into the MoD pension scheme.

AWE bosses plan to close the DB scheme on 31 January and replace it with a defined contribution one.

Unite regional officer Bob Middleton said: “It was in the House of Commons in the early 1990s that the then-Tory government made copper bottomed promises to AWE workers regarding the future of their pensions, once they transferred to the private sector.

“It is quite clear that this pledge has been shattered and our members feel deeply betrayed. The hallmark of this dispute is a litany of broken promises.

“The most just course of action would be for the pension scheme to be taken back by the MoD.

“The four days of strike action later this month are not being taken lightly. It is not a ‘political’ strike, but one taken reluctantly by our members who have no desire to see thousands of pounds wiped off their retirement incomes.”

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