Workers at British Nuclear Fuel's Sellafield plant in Cumbria today held their first strike for 26 years in protest at the pay gap between manual and white collar workers.
Hundreds of members of the GMB and Amicus unions staged the first in a planned series of strikes, claiming that BNFL had reneged on an agreement to close a £2,000 pay gap.
Unions claimed that the company had agreed to harmonise pay by next April, but was now saying that it could not be done until 2009.
Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB, said: "We had hoped that BNFL would be reasonable and meet us to avoid this dispute, but our calls for talks have been met with silence.
"It is time for the company to honour their commitments to the workforce and bring industrial shift pay in line with their white collar counterparts."
The dispute, involving 2,400 workers, followed the resignation yesterday of Hugh Collum, the BNFL chairman.
Union leaders said they hoped that Mr Collum's departure from his £157,500-a-year job would help to break the deadlock.
"We hope that the announcement of Hugh Collum's resignation the day before the strike at Sellafield is a signal that some of the barriers for negotiation are coming down," Mr Strutton said.
The unions are planning to step up industrial action over the next few weeks if the dispute is not resolved.
BNFL said that union members would continue to work in important safety roles across the site today, as would the non-shift workforce, who are not involved in the action.
The company has a formal agreement with the unions involved in the action to ensure that all nuclear plants remain in a safe condition.
Sellafield's director, Brian Watson, said: "I'm disappointed that some people felt the need to resort to industrial action. Clearly, this issue needs to be resolved."
BNFL, which said that it had struck a deal with workers at its other sites, denies breaking any promises, and insists it has begun working towards harmonisation.
However, the loss-making group says it cannot afford to meet the timetable set by the unions for workers who earn up to £40,000 a year.
Mr Collum, who was appointed in 1999, is to leave in mid-2004. He said it would be an appropriate time to step down because a strategic review of the firm would have been completed and the new chief executive, Mike Parker, would have been in his post for almost a year.
"Making the announcement now gives certainty and stability to the business, by allowing adequate time for my successor to be recruited," he said.
The trade and industry secretary, Patricia Hewitt, said: "Hugh took on the role of chairman of BNFL at a time of great difficulty and challenge for the company.
"To restore trust in the company, he set about the complete overhaul of its board and senior management. I should like to express my gratitude to Hugh for his invaluable contribution in the last four years."
