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UK Rolls-Royce Workers Go on Strike
Workers at a UK research center of engine maker Rolls-Royce were on strike Friday, kicking off a series of industrial actions planned for the coming weeks.
The 24-hour walkout, which the Manufacturing, Science & Finance (MSF) union plans to repeat each week, was in protest at the engine company issuing compulsory redundancy notices to 600 staff.
The first people could be made redundant by Rolls-Royce as early as next month.
A Rolls-Royce spokesman said only 400 workers failed to turn up for work, as the majority were not represented by the union involved.
The plant employs 2,400 workers out of Rolls-Royce's total UK workforce of 30,000. In November, Rolls-Royce announced plans that will affect a total of 1,300 skilled engineering jobs at the plant in Ansty, near Coventry. Some of the jobs may be moved elsewhere.
The company said the restructuring may result in fewer than 600 job losses.
The union said the center will close primarily because the Canadian government has offered Rolls-Royce a grant to move research on its power station turbines to Montreal.
Rolls-Royce disputed this account and said it was simply concentrating its resources where the markets are. But union representatives were asking the company to consider alternative proposals.
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