Edinburgh strikes: Aerospace workers at Honeywell walk out at start of week-long pay strike

Workers at aerospace giant Honeywell’s Edinburgh factory walked out today note-0at the beginning of a week-long strike over a below-inflation pay offer.

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Production and assembly staff, members of the Unite union, have rejected the three-year offer which would have meant a 2.75 per cent rise this year and next and a zero per cent rise in the third year.

They have already staged two one-day strikes and decided on the week-long stoppage to increase pressure on the company which has annual revenue of £34.5 billion.

Unite says the staff involved are among the lowest-paid in the company. many of them on the minimum wage, and has described the offer as “pitiful”.

One worker on the picket line said: “Honeywell pay policy over the last few years means that skilled production workers in the aerospace industry are already earning poverty-level wages. We are on strike because we simply cannot afford to accept an offer that will result in perhaps a further 20 per cent or more reduction in real terms pay over three years.

"We are left with no option but to strike to apply pressure on Honeywell to make a reasonable offer more in line with similar engineering companies, such as BAE Systems.”

Another said: “Honeywell require skilled staff to build military and satallite devices. They are a multi billion dollar company. Year on year the production staff have received a below the rate of inflation rise which has pushed us to the poverty line. The offer this year, a three-year deal to include 0 per cent, was the last straw.”

Workers at aerospace giant Honeywell are on strike after rejecting a 'pitiful' pay offer.

Meanwhile, Unite regional officer Carrie Binnie said she planned to write to Honeywell after the company issued a statement to the Evening News last week in which it defended the pay offer but also said it was “committed to bargaining in good faith to reach a comprehensive agreement that is fair to employees and supports our business”.

Ms Binnie said: "I was surprised they said they were still open to negotiations. I thought surely they’d have been in touch to say ‘Come back in and chat’ or put something new on the table, but they’ve not done anything like that.

“We just want them to come back round the table. I’m going to write to them, citing their quote to the Evening News and say if they’re prepared to talk let’s talk and why have they not reached out.”

She said the negotiations had come to an end earlier in the summer when the company said its offer was “full and final” and the union said that would mean a ballot on industrial action. “They have never contacted me since.”

The strikers are angry that the three-year pay offer includes one year at zero per cent.

In its statement, the company said its proposal offered wage increases, benefits similar to those offered to other Honeywell employees, and productivity improvements that would help the business remain competitive in an increasingly challenging economic environment.