HUNDREDS of staff members from Atomic Weapons Establishment’s (AWE) sites in Aldermaston and Burghfield have today taken part in a 24-hour walk out.

The strike action has been taken after a dispute over the change to the employee pension scheme.

The dispute centres on AWE’s plan to replace the current defined benefit pension scheme with a defined contribution alternative that is worse than the scheme currently available to staff.

This proposal is contrary to the government’s “copper-bottomed guarantee” of a no less favourable scheme when the contract for running AWE was put out to tender.

Staff members picketed at every access point into both sites this morning as a show of their “disappointment” in the treatment they have received over the pension dispute.

The decision to take strike action came after trade unions Prospect and Unite held a ballot where an overwhelming 87 per cent of staff said they were willing to strike over the dispute.

Richard Tabbner from Prospect said: “Strike action was very much a last resort.

“We tried to come up with solutions and arrange meetings but AWE failed miserably to come up with something we thought was suitable.”

The strike has been criticised by some over fears that it would leave the AWE site’s unsafe.

However, Bob Middleton from Unite said they correct measures had been put in place to ensure that if there was an emergency, both sites would be safe.

AWE Site Director Haydn Clulow said: "AWE's commitment is to put in place future pension arrangements which ensure the long-term affordability of the scheme. We are continuing to hold discussions with the Trade Unions and have undertaken detailed contingency planning to ensure we have resilient measures to deal with industrial action.”