Streetlighting workers in talks over strike
Published Date:
03 September 2008
TALKS are taking place today to try to stop strike action which would disrupt a multi-million pound South Tyneside street light project.
CE Electric UK bosses are due to meet with the Unite and GMB unions, representing the company's industrial workforce, to discuss a 10 per cent pay offer.
According to the GMB union, the dispute is over the failure to pay comparable wages to those earned elsewhere in the utilities sector.
GMB chiefs claim 88 per cent of members balloted voted in favour of strike action, but the company said that only referred to members in North East England – around 12 per cent of those eligible to vote.
Of the full 1,100 workforce, CE Electric UK said more than a third did not vote in favour of strike action.
Any industrial action could severely disrupt work on the £63m contract to replace street lighting in South Tyneside.
CE Electric connects the new street lights once they have been installed by Balfour Beatty, which is responsible for providing and maintaining street lighting and highway signs for the next 25 years.
The full article contains 188 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
03 September 2008 1:29 PM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
South Shields
