HUNDREDS of workers at Falkirk’s Alexander Dennis bus factory began a two-week strike over pay today.

The firm — the biggest manufacturer of double-deckers in the world — infuriated coach builders and spray painters by offering less than 5 per cent in a period covering 2023 and 2024, despite soaring inflation over the last year.

Unite members at the site overwhelmingly rejected the offer, which amounted to a real-terms pay cut, with 81.3 per cent of a 72 per cent turnout backing strike action.

Unite industrial officer Pat Egan said: “This dispute is entirely of Alexander Dennis’s own making.

“It has had every chance to make our members a fair pay offer but it has failed to do so.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s skilled manufacturing members at Alexander Dennis deserve far better from their employer.

“The pay offer tabled by the company represents a substantial real-terms pay cut and is totally unacceptable.”

Alexander Dennis said it paid “considerably higher than our primary domestic competitor,” adding: “We are extremely disappointed that the unions representing our Falkirk factory are going ahead with their industrial action.”