Pensions rumpus: steelworkers' naked ploy
00:00, 02 October 2003
SHEPPEY steelworkers are threatening to bare all outside the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth next week.
The publicity stunt by former employees of ASW Sheerness and other workers aims to raise the profile of their campaign for pensions compensation.
It will involve standing on the pier in front of a sea of photographers and television cameras wearing nothing but a poster reading Stripped of our Pensions.
Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Derek Wyatt (Lab) is also considering joining in with the stunt, billed as a 'brief' production of Calendar Boys.
Mr Wyatt explained: "We just need to get the message through to Government and get people talking about it. We think this is quiet a good way of hijacking the agenda, and we want politicians to smile when they see it."
Former employees of Allied Steel and Wire have held several meetings with the Government over the pensions issue.
When ASW Sheerness would up in July 2002, workers approaching retirement were told their future pensions would be much smaller than expected.
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