Some 11,000 workers at the car giant Ford may be balloted for industrial action to stop attacks on their pension scheme.
Ford bosses told the workers’ Unite union that they intend to use the CPI inflation measure to calculate increases to pension scheme payments, rather than the usually higher RPI measure.
This will mean that current Ford workers, and a further 30,000 former employees, will see their pensions hit.
If pensions paid today had been linked to CPI instead of RPI inflation over the last 20 years, they would now be 14 percent lower.
Workers at Ford’s two Dagenham plants, Bridgend, Halewood, Daventry and Dunton will be balloted.
The engine plants in Dagenham and Bridgend manufacture two thirds of the engines Ford builds worldwide. The plants also build engines for Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo.
Unite national officer Roger Maddison said, “There is a real possibility of a national strike at Ford for the first time since the 1970s.
“Unite will not stand idly by while a company worth billions attempts to rob workers and vulnerable pensioners.”
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