Cadbury's strike closer as ballot on broken pay promises underway
18th July 2009
A strike at Britain's leading chocolate maker, Cadbury, drew one
step closer today (Saturday, July 18th) as workers begin to vote on
action against the company's broken pay promises.
From this morning, ballot papers consulting on possible strike
action will begin to arrive at the homes of Cadbury's workers,
members of Unite the union.
Unite is angry that Cadbury is breaking a long-standing deal
struck with the workers at Cadbury's UK plants at Bourneville,
Chirk, Marlbrook and Somerdale, by refusing to honour the final
year of a three year pay agreement.
A strike among the 1,300-strong workforce will hit supplies of
some of the most popular chocolate products in the country,
including Wispa, Crunchie, Dairy Milk and Creme Egg.
Jennie Formby, Unite national officer for the food and retail
sector, said the company could easily avert industrial action: “All
Cadbury's managers have to do is keep their promise to the
workforce and production will not be disrupted.
“The workers are angry that while Cadbury's managers and
shareholders carve up a hefty 30 per cent leap in profits, made by
the hard work of the employees, workers are left choking on the
crumbs, a derisory half per cent in their pay packets.
“It is unacceptable that a company as profitable as Cadbury
seeks to use a recession to snatch back money meant for workers. We
ask Cadbury now to honour its commitments because these workers
deserve nothing less than the fair pay they were promised.”
However, Unite says that the ballot will be forced to exclude
workers at Cadbury's Somerdale site because of a punitive clause in
their redundancy agreement which means they forfeit all enhanced
redundancy payments if they take any industrial action.
“The pay issue is particularly important for the Somerdale
workers because they were counting on the two per cent pay increase
to enhance not just their last earnings with the company before
their factory closes and production goes to Poland, but also to
boost their final redundancy pay. They may be being denied a voice
in this process but Unite will still fight for the best deal for
them,” adds Jennie Formby.
Cadbury had agreed a deal of RPI plus 0.5 per cent with the
workforce, with a minimum of two per cent for 2009. However, as RPI
in February was 0 per cent the company is breaking the original
agreement and instead imposing a deal of 0.5 per cent. This comes
despite the 30 per cent leap in profits across the company this
year.
Unite is conducting a consultative ballot of the workforce,
except in the Somerdale site, for industrial action to oppose the
pay deal imposition. The ballot opens on 18th July and closes
on 18th August.
ENDS
For further information, contact Pauline Doyle on 07976 832861
or Jennie Formby on 07702 206436
