Power workers in favour of strike

The walkout begins on 5 September

Staff at a firm which supplies electricity to millions of homes are to strike for seven days over pay.

The GMB union said 1,100 staff at CE Electric would walk out on 5 September after members voted to strike.

The company is responsible for distributing electricity to more than 3.7m homes across the North East, Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

CE Electric said no formal notification of a walkout had been given. Talks over the dispute are to be held on Thursday.

Workers claim their pay has fallen behind compared with wage rates of other utilities.

'Maintain services'

GMB official Joan Anderson said: "These workers are totally underpaid in comparison with other workers in the rest of utility industries.

"They work in a highly professional industry and keep it going day in and day out while the proceeds go elsewhere.

"They have had enough of this and they want to see it sorted out once and for all.

"The management must listen to the voice of their workers and come forward with a pay plan which will deliver comparability for these workers."

A spokesman for CE Electric said: "No formal notification has yet been received from either GMB or UNITE about any possible strike action.

"Until we have heard formally from the recognised unions through the proper channels, we will refrain from commenting on the potential for strike action, except to reconfirm that we have had to take the possibility of escalated action seriously and have taken steps to prepare contingency plans that will maintain essential services to our customers."

The spokesman said the company regarded that they had made a "reasonable" pay offer and that they did not "regard a strike as the best way forward for either party".