BAE Systems staff, including aerospace engineers, will strike at key Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 factories in a dispute with bosses over pay.
On October 22, 2025, the union Unite confirmed that BAE Systems’ UK workers at Warton and Samlesbury plants in Lancashire had voted to take industrial action.
In a statement, Unite said that members in four sections including manufacturing and quality control will take their first phase of strike action from November 5 to November 25, 2025.
“This will cripple production and bring both sites to a standstill,” said a Unite spokesperson.
More than 1,500 employees at the Samlesbury plant produce the rear fuselage for every F-35 in the global fleet.
The Warton site previously carried out final assembly of the Eurofighter Typhoon, but work dried up earlier this year as existing orders came to an end.
However, Richard Hamilton, who heads the Typhoon for BAE Systems, said he was “really confident” of more orders in the future.
BAE staff at Warton and Samlesbury rejected a 3.6% pay increase. Unite said this was below the rate of inflation and represented a “real terms pay cut”.
Staff who work within the professional services areas of BAE, including aerospace engineers, were said to be “furious” at the offer after manual workers received a 4.5% pay increase and an additional day of annual leave.
“BAE Systems is one of the world’s biggest defense manufacturers and made billions in profit last year. It pays its CEO vast sums and yet sees fit to try and short-change our members for the sake of shareholders. This is completely unacceptable and Unite will be backing our members in their dispute until BAE Systems comes to its senses,” said Sharon Graham, the Unite General Secretary.
Today we published the UK Defence Footprint, a document that breaks down defence’s contribution to UK growth, region by region. 🇬🇧
Our defence industries operate in every nation and region of the UK, operating as engines for growth nationwide 👇 pic.twitter.com/vzGvpNkMuL
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 20, 2025
BAE Systems told AeroTime that the 416 employees planning to strike make up less than 3.5% of the workforce across the Warton and Samlesbury sites.
The company said that this group of workers had already received a 25% rise in pay since 2019.
“We believe the Company’s offer, which includes enhancements to pay and pensions and has been accepted by all 18 of the other Unite bargaining groups in our UK business, is fair and ensures that our employees will continue to receive market-leading pay and reward, while balancing our need to be competitive and affordable for our customers,” said a BAE Systems spokesperson.
They added: “We are really disappointed that this small group and Unite are attempting to disrupt the critical work we do for customers; we are determined to continue to deliver despite those efforts.”
BAE said that it did not anticipate that any defence programs will “grind to a halt” or that any factories will close during the strike.
The company added that its manual population are part of a separate bargaining group and generally paid less that those going on strike.
Base pay makes up a larger proportion of manual staff’s total reward. A higher percentage pay increase was negotiated with this group in exchange for changes to working practices.
