Industrial action at a major North Yorkshire bus factory will \u2018not end\u2019 until an improved pay offer is presented, a trade union has said.<\/p>\n
Around 400 workers are set to walk out for a second time in weeks at the bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis\u2019 Scarborough factory in a dispute over wages.<\/p>\n
The first round of strike action took place from June 25 to July 1, and workers have rejected a four per cent offer from the company after \u201cthe cost-of-living crisis was compounded by years of sub-par pay increases\u201d.<\/p>\n
They are set to strike again, shutting down the factory\u2019s operations from 16 to 20 July.<\/p>\n
Further dates will be scheduled if the dispute is not resolved, according to trade union officials.<\/p>\n
The union Unite said that between August 2021 and May 2026, the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rose by approximately 35.1 per cent and factoring in pay rises increases to date, the wages of workers had fallen 19.8 per cent behind the cost of living.<\/p>\n
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: \u201cThese workers have seen their pay plummet in real terms. Enough is enough. Alexander Dennis must come back with a pay offer that matches their hard work and commitment. Strikes will not end until that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Alexander Dennis previously said it was \u201cone of the top-paying employers in Scarborough\u201d and had made \u201ca very fair and above-inflation offer of a four per cent pay rise\u201d.<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cThe UK bus manufacturing sector is under intense pressure \u2013 costs are rising and half of all new buses now come from overseas. Against this backdrop, it is incredibly disappointing that our offer has been rejected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to working with the union and our team members to bring this matter to a resolution. We do not expect customer deliveries to be affected in the meantime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unite regional officer Dan Stephens said: \u201cAlexander Dennis is entirely responsible for the disruption at its Scarborough factory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could put forward an acceptable offer but is choosing not to. That is the only way this dispute will end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Industrial action at a major North Yorkshire bus factory will \u2018not end\u2019 until an improved pay offer is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-690394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}