11 June 2023
Salbutamol, the active ingredient of Ventolin, one of GSK's top selling medicines, was developed at its Ware Laboratory in the 1960s. Photo Workers.
Workers at pharmaceutical giant GSK are set to escalate their strike action in a dispute over pay. Around 750 workers at sites across Britain have turned down a below inflation pay offer even though the company admits it can afford to pay more.
The workers, members of Unite, undertake a wide variety of roles including engineers, process technicians, laboratory analysts, warehouse workers and fire officers. They refused an offer of six per cent and a one off lump sum of £1,300 – substantially below the current level of inflation.
GSK, previously known as GlaxoSmithKline, is a wealthy and profitable company. Its latest financial results show that it made an operating profit of £8.15 billion last year, a 26 per cent increase on the previous year.
Affordable
The union pointed out that the cost of resolving Unite’s pay claim would be just 0.05 per cent of the company’s profits. GSK has said they can afford the workers’ pay claim but have decided to use the money in other areas.
In contrast, GSK pays a huge salary to chief executive Emma Walmsley. She received £8.4 million last year, including a £6.4 million performance bonus.
Profitable
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham criticised the company for corporate greed. She said that despite being a hugely profitable company and paying its CEO millions, it would not give its workers a fair pay rise.
The strike action will involve workers at GSK’s plants at Barnard Castle in Country Durham, Irvine and Montrose in Scotland, Ulverston in Cumbria, Ware in Hertfordshire and Worthing, West Sussex.
New round
Unite members took initial strike action over the dispute in May. The first of a new round of strikes this month was at Ware on 9 June, with further strikes to be announced.
Unite national officer Tony Devlin said: “Strikes have already depleted GSK’s stockpile of medicines and vaccines and fresh industrial action will create further shortages. However, this dispute is totally of GSK’s own making. The company has admitted it can make a fair pay offer but it has chosen not to.”