Workers at Castlemartin Range will walk out for 24 hours on Monday (November 3) to protest at staff cuts which unions warn could put public lives at risk.

Trade union Unite has 59 members at the range who work for Landmarc Support Services, as range wardens, technicans, operators and administrators.

Today (Thursday) the union called on its members working for Landmarc to strike in a dispute about proposed redundancies, safety issues and lack of consultation.

The union understands that there will be a loss of 370 positions, bringing the UK workforce at the ranges down to about 1,000.

 

It says that Landmarc wants to drive down wages and increase working hours and, as a result, members could lose up to £6,000 in salary and overtime payments.

The union has now written to the MoD HR department asking for the contract to be reviewed, particularly the decision to handover the running of the ranges to service personnel.

Unite said that it is likely that the range will have to close on health and safety grounds during the strike because the rangers won’t be available to ensure safety for any members of the public that stray onto the range.

In his letter to the MoD, Unite regional officer Bob Middleton said: “If the professional range wardens are removed during live firing training it is our view that it will be a matter of time before a fatality occurs.

“During the past year there have been numerous incidents on the ranges which would have resulted in a fatality, if the professional wardens had not been present. Two years ago an Irish Ranger soldier in Wales was killed. All ranges throughout the country need to be in control of fully trained range wardens.”