Ford Workers Call for National Strike Over CPI Switch

Ford workers are threatening a national strike over plans to uprate future payments for Ford Pension Fund members by the Consumer Prices Index. http://www.professionalpensions.com/professional-pensions/news/2028925/ford-workers-national-strike-cpi-switch

Unite said it would ballot more than 10,000 workers within the next two months to stop Ford ditching Retail Prices Index indexation for its 30,000 pensioners. The move would save Ford £400m in reduced liabilities.

Unite national officer Roger Maddison told PP: "Our pensioners are fuming, so are our workforce. We are not prepared to allow this to happen. Ford has always paid the RPI figure and that is what we want them to continue to pay.

"We are going to have to at the least get very close to industrial action to force Ford to meet the obligation we believe they have. There are lots of ways Ford could cut their deficit without having to hammer pensioners. To take money out of a pensioner's pension is, I think, absolutely disgraceful."

It follows the announcement by the government saying schemes could switch to CPI instead of RPI inflation to uprate benefits.