GKN Aerospace and Unite in recognition agreement for the first level of management grades at its largest UK site in Filton.

Unite, Britain’s leading trade union, has agreed a new recognition agreement with leading UK aerospace firm GKN Aerospace for Team Leader management grades at the Filton site it was announced today (23 November 2023).

The recognition agreement at GKN Aerospace Services Limited for the operations, logistics and facilities managers provides Unite with the sole recognition rights for these categories of workers. The agreement provides workers with collective bargaining rights so they can seek improvements to pay, as well as changes to terms and conditions with the full support of Unite.

This is the first recognition agreement signed that covers management grades at GKN at any of their sites throughout the UK and was achieved after a hard-fought campaign that saw an agreement reached through ACAS negotiations.

Around 70 employees will now be eligible for union recognition at Filton, who also have sites in the Isle of Wight, Luton, Portsmouth, Western Approach and the new Global Technology Centre in Bristol.

GKN's Filton site designs and manufactures structural assemblies for aircraft, as well as metallic components and systems, and is an integral part of the aerospace supply chain supporting companies like Airbus and Boeing.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

“This is terrific news for management grade workers at GKN Filton and I’m delighted to welcome them to the Unite union. They will now have our full support for any campaigns to improve their jobs, pay and conditions.”

Unite regional officer Matt Allen added:

“This has been a hard fought campaign to get GKN to recognise our right to represent this group of workers and a huge amount of work has been conducted by Unite’s representatives to achieve this result.

“Unite are building an industrial base across all grades within the aerospace sector and looking at all employers for recognition and collective bargaining where their workers demand it.”