Michelin Workers Demonstrate Against Pay Offer

Workers at the Michelin plant in Stoke-on-Trent held a three hour lunchtime demonstration on Tuesday of last week. Opinions are divided about how ‘successful’ the action was with left leaning newspaper, Socialist Worker, recording an attendance of 200 union members. Other sources suggested the figure was less than half of that.

Rob Taylor, Transport and General Workers Union convenor at the Stoke site commented: “We are not rejecting the 3 per cent pay offer itself, but the fact that it is unconsolidated. Four years ago there were 1,423 redundancies. At the time we also accepted a four-year pay deal that saw three of those years with only a small amount of pay consolidation. They offered us a one-off lump sum, but this is not enough.”

The protest was held outside Michelin’s UK headquarter and saw a union bus deliver banners, including one written in French. “Workers at the Stoke plant in England demand more significant pay increases,” it declared.