{"id":18086,"date":"2019-05-21T14:29:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T13:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18086"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:28","slug":"walkers-crisps-strike-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18086","title":{"rendered":"Walkers out?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The prospect of a crisp \u00e2\u20ac\u0098famine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the North West of England has become a stark possibility as corner shops, pubs and supermarkets face supply shortages amid a strike threat from lorry drivers on a Walkers contract.<\/p>\n

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Drivers employed by Eddie Stobart in Warrington to deliver Walkers snacks have announced two series of strikes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the first from May 31 to June 4 and the second from June 7 to June 11. An overtime ban will also run on May 30, June 5 and 6, and June 12.<\/p>\n

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The first series of strikes will coincide with the final game, on June 1, of the UEFA Champions League, of which Walkers is an official sponsor.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The lorry drivers, who were transferred from Walkers Snack Foods to Eddie Stobart under the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) regulations last year, are angry that Stobart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bosses are refusing to honour an existing industrial agreement that protects their pay and terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

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Before being transferred to Eddie Stobart, lorry drivers had a good working relation with Walkers, but this is now threatened by Stobart management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s refusal to negotiate.<\/p>\n

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The lorry drivers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 anger has fuelled a virtually unanimous vote for strike action \u00e2\u20ac\u201c on a turnout of 95.2 per cent, workers recorded a 100 per cent \u00e2\u20ac\u0098yes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 vote for strike action.<\/p>\n

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Unite regional officer Steve Gerrard slammed the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhigh handed actions of Eddie Stobart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEddie Stobart is refusing to honour the long standing legal industrial agreements that protect our members pay and conditions,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to stand idly by and allow their hard won rights to be demolished.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has made numerous attempts to engage with Eddie Stobart to resolve this dispute and has been continually rebuffed,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Gerrard added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis strike is entirely of Stobart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own making and they can resolve the dispute by agreeing to meaningful negotiations with Unite.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer Adrian Jones agreed.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a sad indictment of Eddie Stobart that workers often face the salami-slicing of their pay, terms and conditions once they are transferred to the company, which has built a reputation for treating their loyal workforce poorly,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat Eddie Stobart has seen its profits more than double recently and its revenue jump by a third \u00e2\u20ac\u201c driven specifically by new contract wins including the Walkers contract \u00e2\u20ac\u201c makes Stobart management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard-line stance all the more unjustifiable.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just on the Walkers contract that the company has treated its workers with disdain,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jones noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bEddie Stobart has confirmed that they have postponed discussions on a pay increase for the wider driver network until October due to Brexit uncertainty.\u00c2\u00a0 This is total nonsense and nothing but an excuse from the company to avoid paying drivers a decent wage.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOn top of all of this a Unite shop steward was dismissed by the company last week, which only adds to the poor reputation of this company.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Jones warned that Walkers too may “face reputational damage if supplies of Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favourite crisps are threatened by strikes in the North West, especially during the final game of the Champions League, of which Walkers is an ostensibly proud sponsor.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis can all be avoided if Eddie Stobart comes to the table and negotiates in good faith with Unite \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our members are ready as ever to avoid strike action and resolve this dispute.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The prospect of a crisp \u00e2\u20ac\u0098famine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the North West of England has become a stark possibility as corner shops, pubs and supermarkets face supply shortages amid a strike threat from lorry drivers on a Walkers contract.   Drivers employed by Eddie Stobart in Warrington to deliver Walkers snacks have announced two series of strikes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"North West supplies of Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favourite crisps Walkers threatened by strike action","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25270,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18086\/revisions\/25270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}