Casino Workers to Join UK’s Striking Workforce in Pay Dispute

Samuel Etienne, Bloomberg News

Striking postal workers on a picket line outside the Royal Mail Plc Bethnal Green delivery office in London, UK, on Friday, Aug. 26. 2022. The deepening of labor strife at Royal Mail comes as companies across Britain suffer a surge in industrial action as soaring inflation stokes pay claims while labor remains in short supply. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The Rank Group’s Grosvenor Casino Unite union members are the latest UK workers to have voted overwhelming in favor of industrial action, planning a 72-hour strike from Sept. 9 as Britain’s economic crisis takes it toll on pockets.

A total of 150 workers from across Grosvenor Casinos’ seven London venues voted to reject retention bonus payments of £600 and £800 as “totally inadequate,” according to a Unite union statement. The Casino workers want an improved pay deal to counter record inflation, the union said.

A spokesperson for Rank said in a statement the company was “disappointed” by the move. “Against the backdrop of an extremely challenging trading environment for Rank, and for the sector as a whole, we have made a strong offer which we believe fairly addresses the current cost of living crisis,” they said.

The casino workers join a raft of the UK’s workforce voting in favor of industrial action in pay disputes. Most of the UK’s criminal trial lawyers started an indefinite strike Monday and in recent weeks postal staff, dockers, bus drivers, BT workers and airport and railway employees have demanded pay and job benefits to counter double-digit inflation, lagging income growth and soaring energy bills.

Read more: Inflation in UK Shops Climbs to Highest Rate on Record

“Grosvenor Casinos is another big money company that is raking it in but refusing to pay its workers a wage that they can live on,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said. “It’s just not acceptable and this huge vote for action underscores the sense of anger across this workforce.”

(Updates with comment in third paragraph.)