Lincolnshire workers pass ballot for further industrial action

Hundreds of food factory workers in Lincolnshire have again voted for further strike action due to the continued failure of their employer, Bakkavor, to pay them a fair wage.

Workers in Spalding, Lincolnshire, have been on strike since September and following a re-ballot, voted overwhelmingly for continuing their industrial action indefinitely.

Bakkavor’s customers, major UK supermarkets like Waitrose, M&S and Tesco are seeing a shortage of products like dips and soups on their shelves. Shortages are expected to worsen as more and more workers join Unite and take to the picket line.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “If Bakkavor thought they could just hold out a bit longer and our members would go back to work with their tails between their legs they have another thing coming. Hundreds of our members voted overwhelmingly for further strike action and they will have the full backing of Unite as they continue their fight for fair pay.”

The workers have seen their pay decrease by 10.6 per cent in real terms over the last three years. Unite members are demanding a pay rise of 81 pence an hour on average. This amounts to just two per cent of Bakkavor’s profits.

Unite is also pursuing the owners and investors of Bakkavor and has taken protests to Iceland and Austria in recent weeks to highlight the poverty pay of its members.

Unite regional officer Sam Hennessey added: “Bakkavor continue to let down the communities they have built their business on. This is a dispute of their own making and the people of Spalding know they could resolve it with a stroke of pen and by paying a fair wage.

“Our members are absolutely resolute in their fight and the vote for further strikes means Bakkavor will continue to let down its customers for the foreseeable future.”

ENDS