10 July, 2014Around 100 members of IndustriALL’s largest UK affiliate, Unite the Union, are on a two-week strike at Tyneside Safety Glass after rejecting a tiny pay increase. The company director just awarded himself a 14 per cent pay rise and transferred £750,000 company money into a trust fund in his name.
The 112 Unite members are at two sites, Kingsway and 7th Avenue on the Team Valley Industrial Estate in North East England. The company makes laminated and toughened glass for bus windows and windscreens, as well as bulletproof items.
Negotiations failed in talks through the UK conciliation service Acas on 26 June. Cost of living increases for the workers mean that workers need more than the “paltry” offer that the company is refusing to increase, or change the “strings attached” that make the offer self-funding for the workers.
The two-week strike action started on 30 June and will run until next Monday, 14 July. This follows a seven day strike from 16 June.
Unite’s regional officer Bob Bolam stated:
Our members are taking strike action as a last resort over this paltry offer. They believe that this profitable company could well afford to be more generous… The Tyneside Safety Glass claim that it is cash-strapped has a very hollow ring as it had oodles of cash to give to one of its directors and also to generously top up the owner’s trust fund.
You can support the strikers by sending messages of solidarity to Unite regional officer Bob Bolam.