Three weeks of strike action announced at Rolls-Royce in battle to prevent jobs being offshored

In August, Rolls-Royce announced that it was intent on offshoring the production of its Trent Engine blades, which are made at Barnoldswick to a factory in Singapore.

Rolls-Royce currently has two adjoining production units in the town – Bankfield and Ghyll Brow – employing around 520 employees.

These proposals would see a reduction in activities at the Bankfield site, a move that would impact approximately 350 employees

Unite believes that this would make the factory, which Rolls-Royce has owned since 1943 and is the cradle of the jet engine, potentially unviable.

Earlier this month, members of Unite returned a 94% ‘yes’ vote in favour of industrial action.

Unite delayed issuing strike dates to give Rolls-Royce a final chance to alter its plans by cancelling its offshoring proposals or by ensuring that Barnoldswick remains viable by introducing similar work and employment levels, to settle the dispute over compulsory redundancies, but with no such commitments forthcoming strike action has been called.

The targeted strike action will begin on Friday, November 6th at 6-30am and end on Friday, November 27th at 7pm..

The announcement of the industrial action comes at a time when Rolls-Royce is in the process of seeking to secure £5 billion in additional investment through a £2 billion rights issue, the issuing of £2 billion of bonds and £1 billion of support from the UK government.

Unite regional officer Ross Quinn said: “Unite has given Rolls-Royce every opportunity to change its plans, confirm there will be no more compulsory redundancies and guarantee the long-term future of Barnoldswick, but it has refused to do so.

“To offshore work and destroy the viability of this historic factory would be nothing short of industrial vandalism.

“As a consequence and as a last resort, Unite has instructed its members to take targeted strike action in order to bring Rolls-Royce to the negotiating table.

“Barnoldswick is the cradle of the jet engine and the workforce and the local community will not allow Rolls-Royce to destroy the viability of the site without a huge fight.

Unite national officer Rhys McCarthy said: “It is simply unacceptable that Rolls-Royce is seeking to offshore the jobs of workers in the UK, while at the same time that it is going cap in hand to the UK government for £1 billion in financial support.

“There is still time before strike action begins for Rolls-Royce to reverse the decision to offshore jobs, or present alternative plans to ensure the Barnoldswick factory’s long term future at similar employment levels. It is hoped it uses the next two weeks wisely.

“If Rolls-Royce is prepared to propose a viable future for Barnoldswick, then Unite will meet them at any time to resolve this dispute and secure a deal to preserve the jobs and the future of the factory.”

A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said: “We are disappointed to receive notice of industrial action at our Barnoldswick site and remain committed to meaningful consultation with employee representatives and trade unions on the future of the facility.

"Although we are proposing that some work will no longer take place at the site, we have no plans to close it. Our people in Barnoldswick will play an important role in developing fan blades for our future jet engines, keeping the UK at the cutting-edge of aerospace technology.

"We ask them to work with us, not against us as we deal with the impact of the pandemic on our business.”