Unite ramps up industrial action after no improved pay offer from management
Hundreds of workers at a world-leading scientific institute are to take further strike action over a lack of a decent pay offer.
Unite members at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) who work at their two London sites (In Sutton and Chelsea) are taking action due to the low pay offer from the ICR while they sit on large cash reserves and pay whopping six-figure salaries to their managers.
Staff at the ICR will now head to the picket line from 29 June until the 10 July. Their walkout will cause huge problems at the ICR with laboratories unable to function effectively.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "The ICR has brought this action upon itself and only it can end it with a decent pay offer for their skilled and valued workforce. The ICR’s low pay culture has forced its staff to strike for the first time in the Institute’s hundred year plus history.
 
“They will have the full backing of their union in this dispute."
Workers who work across scientific research, laboratory support, and site management, have been offered just a 4 per cent pay increase amid a cost-of-living crisis, along with the refusal to implement a increment-based pay policy and a refusal to address pay restoration. Many currently earn barely over the London Living Wage of just £14.80 per hour. The workers have experienced a series of below inflation pay rises in recent years, resulting in severe cuts in their living standards.
Unite regional officer Will Searby said: "Our members are showing they are not backing down. They are confident in their ability to win and will strike until management show that they respect their value and provide a fair deal that protects the future of cancer research by investing in the workers who deliver it. Our members are showing that they won’t  be taken for granted any longer."
-ENDS-
David Carnell
Senior Communications Adviser
david.carnell@unitetheunion.org 
07718 666592