Workers at another South Holland factory will be walking out in a dispute over pay.
Staff at Princes Food in Long Sutton and their colleagues at the Wisbech factory are set to form picket lines later this month, according to Unite the Union.
The union says its members, line operatives and engineers, are taking industrial action after previous pay offers were revoked by new owners, Italian based multinational Newlat S.P.A.
Staff at Princes in Long Sutton are set to walk out in January PHOTO: GOOGLE MAPS
Unite’s members had been offered between a four and seven per cent pay rise dependent on salary by the previous owner, Mitsubishi.
The company was subsequently bought by Newlat which withdrew that offer and is offering a three per cent pay rise.
This would be the second strike taking place in South Holland as Unite members at Spalding’s Bakkavor factory walked out in September over pay.
The Princes factory in Wisbech
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Newlat need to get back round the negotiating table before its customers discover they won’t have any products on their shelves. Our members work in back-breaking roles on low pay and want a fair slice of the pie.
“Newlat make 20 per cent of all their revenues in the UK and are making money off the backs of these workers. Yet they want to shortchange our members. Unite won’t stand for such behaviour and back our members 100 per cent.”
Strike action has already been taking place outside the Princes factory in Cardiff but additional walkouts are planned in Bradford, Glasgow, Wisbech and Long Sutton.
The canning operation at Princes in Long Sutton PHOTO: STOCK
Action will be taking place in Long Sutton on January 7, 9, 14 and 16.
While it is running at Wisbech between January 8 and 10 as January 16 to 18.
Princes produce brands such as Branston and Crosse & Blackwell – and Unite has warned that there maybe shortages as a result of the action.
The canning operation at Princes in Long Sutton
In its latest half year financial reports, the Newlat Group expects to achieve sales of 2.8 billion euros during this financial year with profits of approximately 188 million euros.
Unite national officer for food, drink and agriculture, Paul Travers, said: “Newlat borrowed huge sums of money to buy Princes and is now looking to cut corners and penny pinch to pay that money back. Unite won’t let them do so with our members’ livelihoods.
“Newlat can avoid this strike, which is one of their own making, by coming back to the negotiating table with a new and improved pay deal for our members.”
A Princes spokesperson said: “It is now clear to us that it is becoming increasingly difficult to resolve this dispute with Unite. We have engaged the Union in discussions for several months, tabled an above inflation pay rise and had offered to backdate this to April 2024 whilst discussions were ongoing but Unite advised us that they would not permit the business to do this.
“We completely recognise the difficult economic circumstances our colleagues, our industry and the wider UK faces. Our industry has faced covid and Brexit impacts, then inflation and a cost of living crisis and navigating these has required empathy, sacrifice and pulling together as one team which colleagues across our business have done so well.
“The Princes board fully understands our very serious obligation to looking after our colleagues, but we have that exact same obligation to keeping Princes a sustainable business in the long term through focussing on managing our costs and being a competitive supplier of UK food and beverages.”