Staff at Crane Building Services & Utilities (BS&U) in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, are holding a strike ballot over pay.
The ballot opened on Thursday (18 April) among 105 workers – or 78 per cent of the firm’s 151 employees – and will close on 2 May, according to trade union GMB.
“Months of negotiations have failed to move the employer from a base pay offer of 5 per cent,” the GMB said in a statement on Friday (19 April). The union is seeking a 10 per cent rise.
In an earlier indicative ballot, Crane BS&U’s offer was rejected by 95 per cent of the GMB members at the Hertfordshire facility.
“GMB has engaged in pay negotiations in good faith, however, quite simply our members are not being listened to,” said its London regional organiser Andre Marques.
The GMB urged Crane BS&U to “re-think its current position and table a meaningful pay increase to resolve this dispute and possible strike action”.
Marques said there were no plans for strike ballots at the firm’s other UK facilities in Ipswich and Northampton.
Construction News approached Crane BS&U for comment.
The firm designs and manufactures engineered flow control products and solutions for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and utilities sectors.
It is part of the Process Flow Technologies group, which is a division of US-based parent company Crane Co.
