27.01.2026

Wolff operator’s strike

On the day that operators at Wolffkran UK were due to go on strike, the company has issued a full statement. See: UK tower crane operator strike

“Statement on strike activities in UK

Despite receiving an offer from the company in August to significantly increase their basic pay and having received over 38% in pay increases since 2015, Wolffkran tower crane operators are now engaged in industrial action in a quest for more money.
This comes as a huge disappointment to all of us who have worked hard to resolve this issue and we are saddened that a proportion of the 123 operators, whose average pay is almost £66,000 per year, have chosen this course. Wolffkran lays the responsibility of the disruption squarely at the door of Unite and its members due to their inflexibility during negotiations and failure to seek a solution. We are and have always been, open for further discussions, but we have not seen any appetite from Unite to resume dialogue, and this is very disappointing.

Additional facts
• Since 2015, pay awards of 38.3% have shown Wolffkran’s commitment to rewarding staff when the financial situation allows and is further supported when viewed alongside parallel inflation figures of 35.2% for the same period.

• The highest earned gross figure from the Wolffkran operator in 2025 was just short of £110k, with average earnings of almost £66k. This puts Wolffkran operators on salary par with Civil Engineers, Construction Managers and Train Drivers, with the average length of service in the department being 12 years and 9 months.

• Since 2016 the business has seen crane utilisation decrease by 26%, the number of cranes on hire has also reduced by around 40%

• Average rental rates have also been hit hard, reducing by around 20-25%, depending on the crane model.”

The union's view

A few pickets are standing outside some of the construction sites where Wolffkran tower cranes are located, with some of them brandishing Unite posters like the one below.

Vertikal Comment

This is not a dispute to get in the middle of, so we will not do so.

However, if you are familiar with another UK dispute - the UK junior/resident doctors' strikes - there are similarities here, at least where money is concerned. Relatively high paid employees pointing out a specific period during pay has not kept up with inflation.

As in that case It does look as though, for whatever reason, at least one of the parties is not listening or willing to sit down and negotiate intelligently.

One of the challenges highlighted in Wolff's statement is that contractors in the UK are not paying commercial rental rates for their cranes, in spite of demanding ever higher standards and equipment specifications. And yet contractors waste enormous amounts of money in the way they manage some of their mega projects - HS2 being a classic case. Make sure you check out the latest edition of Cranes & Access magazine - it contains the latest rental rate survey.