Sheffield TUC tells CELSA – “Pay ROM strikers now!”

 

 

 

Community Union members on strike for first pay rise in 10 years!

at ROM steel engineering firm on Brightside Lane, Sheffield

Sheffield TUC tells CELSA “Pay up now!”

 

PRESS RELEASE

3rd August 2017

 

Sheffield Trade Union Council calls on CELSA, the owner of the ROM steel engineering firm where 18 members of the Community Union are taking two-week strike action, to pay a decent pay rise now! “It is shocking that a Sheffield employer has refused a pay rise to its workers at ROM for 10 years” said Martin Mayer, Secretary of Sheffield Trade Union Council. “This strike is fully justified and deserves support from the whole community” he said.

 

The workers at ROM initially accepted a period of restraint because of the recession but patience has finally worn out. Every year that ROM workers have gone without a pay rise has been a pay cut in real terms. The current strike action is over last year’s 2016 pay claim which the company have refused to respond to. Following a ballot in December 2016, a period of work-to-rule and overtime ban commenced in January 2017 but this failed to budge the company. The members, who have been very patient, voted overwhelmingly for this strike action. Further industrial action is inevitable if the company continues to make no response.

 

“Sheffield TUC launched its ‘Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise’ campaign to combat the falling pay and conditions of working people in our city which is damaging the local economy, inhibiting growth and impoverishing whole communities in Sheffield” said Martin Mayer. “These Community Union members deserve better than this. We can’t allow firms like CELSA to withhold pay increases to its workers – it’s not fair for the workers and their families and it’s damaging the well-being of our working class communities and the local economy”

 

Messages of support can be sent to ROM dispute, Community Union by email to servicecentre@community-tu.org

 

Martin Mayer

Secretary

Sheffield TUC

Tel 0776 107 8482