HP workers in UK stage one-day strike
More than 1,000 staff at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services in the United Kingdom took part in a one-day strike on Friday as the result of a dispute over pay and job losses.
The Public and Commercial Services Union announced the action Thursday after talks broke down. The staff involved work for HP's Enterprise Services division at sites in Newcastle, Washington, Preston, and the Fylde Coast. They are mainly contract workers for the Department for Work and Pensions, as well as the Ministry of Defense and General Motors, according to the union.
The dispute relates to ongoing job cuts across the U.K. that followed HP's takeover of services company EDS in August 2008. EDS was renamed HP Enterprise Services. Since the acquisition, HP has laid off 3,400 employees, and a further 1,000 job cuts are scheduled for the first four months of 2010, the union said. The strikers were also protesting a pay freeze imposed for 2009 and 2010.
Read more of "HP staff stage one-day strike" at ZDNet UK.