Strikes by warehouse workers and drivers are set to create chaos in the run-up to Christmas at Tesco.
More than 1,000 workers are organising walkouts in a pay row, adding further stress on the supply chain where Tesco bosses had earlier warned of reduced choice on supermarket racks due to driver deficits.
The Unite union said the company offer of a four per cent pay increase was well below the rate of inflation, currently 6 per cent according to the retail price index.
Tesco said the offer was one of the highest awards made within their distribution business in the last 25 years.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said their members have gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep Tesco racks loaded during the pandemic, and said that at the very least the UK’s biggest and most prosperous retailer should be making their members a fair pay proposition.
Workers at depots in Didcot and Doncaster will strike for 48 hours from 6 am on December 16, with a five-day stoppage from December 20.
Unite members at Tesco Antrim and Belfast distribution centres will begin an all-out, continuous strike from 7 am on December 16.
The union announced that a strike ballot result of its members at Tesco’s distribution centre in Livingston, Scotland, would be known today.
The union announced that a strike ballot result of its members at Tesco’s distribution centre in Livingston, Scotland, will be known today.
The union said that if workers vote for industrial action they will be likely to join the strike action before Christmas.
Unite national officer Adrian Jones said that Unite is taking strike action as a last resort having drained all other options.
He said that even at this late stage, Tesco could still avoid critical disruption in its stores by returning to the negotiating table and making a greatly improved offer.
Tesco said that their distribution colleagues had worked tirelessly through the pandemic in order to keep stocks moving for customers, and he said that the pay offer they’d made was a clear recognition of this and was one of the highest awards made within their distribution business in the last 25 years, building on their highly competitive pay and rewards package and that they welcomed the decision by their co-workers at the sites who’d voted against industrial action.
He said that they’re saddened that some have voted to proceed and that they have contingency plans in position to help alleviate any impacts.
The taxpayer is subsidising Tesco shareholders by millions every year, giving them bonuses that are paid by us, the people, but if Tesco paid their workers a proper wage they wouldn’t have to claim Tax Credits, which comes out of the public purse, and let’s hope that the workers get the pay rise which they justly deserve.
However, if they do get the pay rise that they want, who do you think pays for it, it’s certainly no mythological billionaire. All it means is that our shopping will become more costly when they put all their prices up, but of course, it will all get blamed on COVID.
But it’s not only shop workers that haven’t had a pay rise. Pensioners haven’t had a pay rise in years, yet they’re still having to pay rent, rates, gas, electric et cetera – what about their lack of pay rise – oh, I forgot, they don’t matter, and it’s not just the elderly, what about the disabled as well?
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