A Durham factory that finished parts for the aviation industry is facing a strike vote.
Dozens of GMB members at Nicholsons Sealing Technologies, in Stanley, will take part in an industrial action ballot beginning on 19 May.
The vote, which includes around 50 per cent of affected workers on the shop floor, will run until 1 June.
Workers - many of whom operate heavy machinery and dangerous chemicals yet were below the minimum wage until April – are angry over a ‘poverty’ pay offer.
Although the offer is 6.7 per cent, that figure includes the legal rise the company was forced to give to keep workers above the National Minimum wage when it rose last month.
Etain Stobbart, GMB Organiser, said:
"All these workers asked for was a pay increase in line with the rising cost of living.
“They were so poorly paid, the company had to increase their wages last month to keep them above the legal minimum wage. But it’s still poverty pay.
“The company celebrates 100 years this year – if they don’t want a strike for the first time in their history, they need to improve their offer to workers now.”
