AstraZeneca staff to strike over pensions freeze

AstraZeneca workers will strike next month in protest at the pharmaceutical group's final salary pension scheme freeze.

The GMB union said there would be three two-hour stoppages on September 8, three four-hour strikes on September 15 and a 24-hour walk-out starting at 5am on September 22.

"The last thing our members want to do is to take strike action at AstraZeneca but the attack by the company on the pension entitlement of our members leaves them with no choice," said GMB national officer Allan Black.

"The strike action follows a GMB ballot of its members in the company in the light of this highly profitable pharmaceutical company's decision to make savage cuts in its employees' defined benefit [final salary] pension scheme."

About 2,500 workers are affected by the changes, mainly based in Macclesfield, the company's second largest site.

AstraZeneca said last week that it was reviewing a ballot backing strike action, which it said resulted in about a third of GMB members, less then 2% of its British employees, voting in favour.