Fujitsu workers begin 48-hour strike in long-running dispute over jobs and pensions

Staff at IT giant Fujitsu began a 48-hour strike today in a long-running dispute over job cuts and changes to the group’s pension plan.

Workers at sites including Solihull, Crewe, Manchester, Wakefield and Warrington walked out at midnight.

The strike follows a 24-hour stoppage last Thursday and is due to be repeated by a further one-day stoppage on Monday (April 24).

The dispute centres on pay, pensions, job security and union recognition – and takes place against a background of Fujitsu’s plans to axe and offshore 1,800 jobs in the UK.

Trade union Unite said Fujitsu, which has a large presence at Birmingham Business Park, was a highly profitable business in the UK, making £85.6m profit in the last financial year and it was therefore an ill-considered move to cut and offshore jobs.

One day strikes were also staged in February and March, which the union said had generated strong support and impacted services to customers.

Unite said the company needed to engage with the union to avoid further industrial action, which could stretch into the summer.

The union is campaigning for the company to:

•    Significantly improve redundancy payments and redeployment efforts
•    Conduct meaningful consultation
•    Restore the retrospective cut in pensions
•    Become a living wage accredited employer; and
•    Recognise Unite as the union to represent all employees who want it.