Around 300 workers at defence manufacturer Thales have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in an escalating pay dispute, with staff at the company’s Govan site in Glasgow and dozens at its Reading headquarters backing strikes after rejecting a pay offer below the current rate of inflation, the Unite union has said.
According to the union, talks with the company are scheduled in a final attempt to reach a resolution before strike action is announced, with walkouts expected in the coming weeks if no acceptable offer is made. The workers involved in the ballot include electronics, software and systems engineers along with manufacturing and mechanical technicians.
The Govan site sits at a sensitive point in the submarine supply chain, as Thales is the sole supplier of periscopes and optronic masts to the Royal Navy, producing the systems fitted to the service’s submarines from its Glasgow facility, which has built periscopes on the Clyde for over a century. Optronic masts replaced traditional hull-penetrating periscopes on the Astute class and will equip the Dreadnought ballistic missile submarines, making the site’s output a dependency for both the attack submarine fleet and the future nuclear deterrent. The union noted that the company holds record levels of orders, with the Ministry of Defence recently announcing export deals for Thales worth £1.1 billion sustaining hundreds of jobs in Glasgow.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Thales is an extremely profitable company who could end this dispute at any moment. It can easily afford a fair pay increase for their skilled and valuable workforce who are the ones helping to make huge profits for the company. Instead, Thales is putting greed above treating its workforce with decency.” The union cited combined Thales UK operating profits of £179.3 million across 2023 and 2024.
Unite regional coordinator Elaine Dougall accused the company of refusing to negotiate meaningfully. “It will have one last chance before our members take to the picket line,” she said. “The ball is in Thales’ court. It can resolve this dispute by making an acceptable offer to our members. If it does not, then our members will take to the picket lines in the coming weeks.”
The claims regarding the pay offer, the company’s finances and the conduct of negotiations are the union’s, and Thales has not commented publicly on the ballot result at the time of writing.
