{"id":28104,"date":"2021-03-15T15:59:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T15:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28104"},"modified":"2021-03-15T15:59:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T15:59:03","slug":"jacobs-douwe-egberts-coffee-workers-vote-for-strike-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28104","title":{"rendered":"Jacobs Douwe Egberts coffee workers vote for strike ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Workers at the JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) site in Banbury, Oxfordshire have voted to proceed to an industrial action ballot over plans to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 nearly 300 workers at the coffee factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite said today (March 15) its members had voted by 96 per cent in a consultative ballot to hold a full-scale industrial action ballot, with the option to strike, in response to the Dutch-owned company issuing notice of dismissal and engagement for 291 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 anger has been fuelled by the financial results from the multi-national last week which reported \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a record In-Home organic growth of 9.1% in 2020\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. This increase has been augmented by the boom in coffee drinking in the UK during the year-long pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members are also furious at the proposed changes to the company’s pension scheme which will mean the ending of the final salary system and introducing an ‘inferior’ defined contribution scheme which will be subject to the vagaries of global stock markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No dates are yet available for when the ballot might be held for the Ruscote Avenue workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite national officer for the food and drink industry Joe Clarke said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members have voted by an impressive 96 per cent in a consultative ballot that they wished to have a full-scale industrial action ballot, including the option to strike, over the bosses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plans to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 them on inferior pay and employment conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTheir determination has been reinforced by the financial results of the multi-national with strong growth helped by the British public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insatiable appetite for coffee during the pandemic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and further growth is expected in 2021,” he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTherefore, there is no reason, except excessive corporate greed, why the Banbury bosses have adopted this immoral decision to adopt a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 strategy in the midst of a global pandemic which will damage our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 incomes and hit the wider Oxfordshire economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo meet the estimated 40 per cent increase in coffee drinking during the last 12 months, the workforce at Banbury has worked flat out supplying the nation with Tassimo, Kenco and L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122OR Coffee,” Clarke continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s door is open 24\/7 for constructive talks with the management on the plant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0In a letter of support to the workforce, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe recent notice of fire and rehire from JDE in Banbury is a despicable attack on our hard-working key workers who have committed themselves so tirelessly throughout this Covid crisis, under extremely difficult circumstances, supplying the nation with coffee throughout the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is an opportunist attack on our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay and conditions, our members and their families have been through enough hardship over the past 12 months without having to deal with this unethical and immoral behaviour.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Shaun Noble<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workers at the JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) site in Banbury, Oxfordshire have voted to proceed to an industrial action ballot over plans to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 nearly 300 workers at the coffee factory. Unite said today (March 15) its members had voted by 96 per cent in a consultative ballot to hold a full-scale industrial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1304,1055],"wps_subtitle":"Banbury coffee workers overwhelmingly vote for strike ballot over \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plans","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28104"}],"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=28104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28106,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28104\/revisions\/28106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}