Industrial action will start at the Coulport nuclear armaments depot will start tomorrow, union leaders have confirmed.
Unite Scotland has confirmed that around 70 of its members who provide specialist services for the UK’s nuclear deterrent submarines will start an overtime ban.
The union has accused employers of ‘delaying tactics’ after 90.5% of its members at RNAD Coulport voted ‘yes’ in support of strike action, and 95.3% supporting action short of a strike.
Unite has made a claim of 3.8% pay increase, which it says matches the RPI rate of inflation.
The workers involved in the dispute provide care and maintenance services for the weapons systems on the Royal Navy nuclear-armed submarine fleet.
The union says that due to the specialist nature of the services provided that even an overtime ban could potentially ‘cripple’ the effective running of operations at the naval bases.
Stevie Deans, Unite regional coordinator, said: “The ABL Alliance employers have continued to use delay tactics over six weeks since our members voted for industrial action.
“Instead of using this period to find a positive resolution to the dispute, the ABL Alliance have dangled the promise of new offers in front of our members, and then blamed other parties including the Treasury for absolutely nothing concrete coming forward.
“It’s part of a charade to spin this out and our members won’t tolerate this any more.
“A continuous overtime ban is now set to start, and if this doesn’t knock some sense into the companies then all options remain on the table for us including strike action.”
The ABL Alliance was awarded a contract by the UK Ministry of Defence to provide services for the weapon system at Coulport, as well as the strategic weapon support building at Faslane.
The workers involved in the dispute are employed by three separate employers: AWE plc, Babcock Marine (Clyde) Ltd, and Lockheed Martin UK Strategic Systems Ltd.
AWE workers are involved mainly in maintaining the weapon system operation, whereas the Lockheed Martin workers are responsible for specialist engineering and quality control.
Babcock workers provide the jetty services at Coulport.
An MoD spokesperson said: “The government is aware of the ongoing pay negotiations between the ABL Alliance and the Unite Trade Union; we are hopeful that a resolution will be reached by all parties.
“The continued safe operation of HM Naval Base Clyde is of paramount importance and the safe management of the port will not be compromised.”
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