A major union has said that its members working for Aston Martin in five sites, including St Athan in south Wales, are prepared to take strike action to defend their pensions.
Unite says the message from its members comes after the prestigious car manufacturer – which has previously received almost £20milllion in Welsh Government funding- looks set to close its more beneficial defined benefit pension scheme from February next year.
The decision to end the defined benefit scheme and replace it with the less generous defined contribution scheme would see workers losing around £100,000 over the course of their retirement, Unite has said.
They say its members affected by the proposal at St Athan in south Wales, Gaydon and Wellesbourne (both in Warwickshire); Milton Keynes and Newport Pagnell had voted overwhelmingly in a consultative ballot that they wanted to hold a full-scale industrial action ballot in the New Year to protect their retirement incomes.
Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd – whose revenue soared 153% in May this year – wants to close the defined benefit scheme on 31st January, something the union’s pension experts estimate could cost its members about £100,000.
The changes don’t affect all workers, with the majority of the workforce – and all new starters – in the less valuable defined contribution scheme.
But Unite general secretary Sharon Graham says they are prepared to defend workers who have worked for years under the impression that they would get a decent pension.
“These workers have done as asked and saved for their retirement, but they have also worked hard to deliver improved profits for Aston Martin,” she said.
“There is, therefore, no case to be made for closing the defined benefit pension schemes, a move that robs our members of tens of thousands of pounds – in the case of Aston Martin workers, that is about £100,000.”
The union says that defined contribution schemes are at the mercy of sudden fluctuations in global stock markets and produce worse retirement incomes. They are asking for the consultation to be extended, but say that the request has been declined by the management.
“We will back our members at Aston Martin 100 per cent if they decide to take industrial action to defend their pensions and defeat this threat to their retirement incomes.,” said Sharon Graham.
“Aston Martin’s whole workforce is now aware of the gross inadequacy of the existing defined contribution scheme by comparison – and this will be a significant factor when we put forward our claim in the 2022 pay review.”
The news comes on the back of other bad news for the workforce at the firm’s Welsh site.
In March this year, Aston Martin St Athan announced plans to cut around 200 jobs, leaving workers feeling ‘demoralised.’
The firm has also received around £19million in public money from the Welsh Government, who were desperate to attract the prestigious car firm to Wales as part of a failed industrial strategy.
A 2018 freedom of information request revealed that the company was given £13m more in funding than Welsh Government ministers had previously disclosed.
£5.8m was initially offered to attract the luxury carmaker to the Vale of Glamorgan site.
Aston Martin’s DBX model which has been built at the St Athan site, and the reason the Welsh Government said they gave the company public money, accounted for 55% of Aston Martin’s sales in the first three months of 2021, leading to revenue of £244million over the period.
Less than a year later, workers who delivered these higher-than-expected revenues are facing a huge pension cut.
