The Dagenham plant

Dagenham Ford staff will join a 24 hour nationwide strike in a row over pay and pensions.

Unite, which represents 1,200 white collar employees at the car giant, said the walk out will last from 6am on Monday to 6am the following day.

The union said staff were “furious” at plans to close the final salary pension scheme to new starters and lower their rates of pay.

Sites affected include the Dagenham plant, the headquarters in Warley, Brentwood, Bridgend in South Wales, Halewood on Merseyside and Southampton.

Staff voted by 67 per cent on a 100 per cent turnout for strike action on May 22, but the union agreed to postpone announcing the ballot result to the public to allow further negotiations with the company to take place.

Unite national officer Roger Maddison said: “Our staff members will not stand by and allow Ford to create a two-tier workforce on pay and pensions. To date Ford has failed to make any genuine attempts to resolve this dispute.

“We fiercely oppose the closure of Ford’s final salary scheme to new entrants because we believe ultimately Ford will try to close the entire scheme. Ford must prove that it is committed to the UK by investing in its UK workforce.

“The company is also refusing to back away from creating a two-tier workforce by making new starters work for less money for doing the same job as existing staff. This is totally unacceptable.”