CAR maker Ford could be hit by the first major strike by its workers since the 1970s.
Unite the Union is today expected to announce plans to ballot its 11,000 members working for Ford, including around 700 at its Getrag Ford transmission plant, in Halewood, over plans by the company to change their pension arrangements.
Ford is believed to favour changing the way pensions are calculated by using the consumer price index (CPI), instead of the retail price index.
The CPI does not include housing and council tax costs and so will result in lower pensions for staff, including around 30,000 ex-Ford workers who draw a company pension. Union sources claim that if pensions had been linked to CPI for the past 20 years they would now be 14% lower.
Ford has told union negotiations that it has no choice other than to follow the Government’s lead and use CPI as the basis for calculations.
But union leaders say no pension scheme will be forced to change to CPI.
