Following industrial action at Princes Food UK’s Cardiff factory, strikes at its factories across the country could see hundreds of Unite Union’s members head to the picket line in January.
The Union says factories in Bradford, Wisbech, Long Sutton and Glasgow will see strikes as well as additional walkouts in Cardiff.
Princes Foods make dozens of household name products, such as Branston and Crosse & Blackwell, as well as its own brand tins and jars of meat and fish. Unite claims the strikes are likely to lead to shortages in supermarkets and shops across the country.
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.”
Unite said its members are taking industrial action after having seen previous pay offers revoked by new owners. Unite’s members, who work as line operatives and engineers, had been offered between a 4% and 7% pay rise dependent on salary by the previous owner, Mitsubishi. The company was subsequently bought by Italian based multinational Newlat S.P.A, which withdrew that offer. Instead, it is offering a 3% pay rise.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Newlat needs 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% 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%.”
In its latest half year financial reports, the Newlat Group said it expects to achieve sales of 2.8 billion euros during this financial year with profits of approximately 188 million euros.
