Home » UK Business News » Hundreds Of Morrisons Workers Set To Strike Over Pay

Hundreds Of Morrisons Workers Set To Strike Over Pay

By Hugh Fort in UK Business News, posted April 21, 2024

Morrisons workers could strike after changes by the supermarket giant they say will leave them £500 a year worse off.

Around 1,000 members of the Unite union working as warehouse stock controllers, cooks, canteen staff, and administrators are now being balloted over a walkout.

They are based in Cheshire and Wakefeld in Yorkshire.

They perform vital roles to ensure the company's lorriers are loaded and shelves are kept full.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is focussed on our members’ jobs, pay and conditions and these unmerited changes to workers’ pensions will leave our members worse off every month.

"Unite will not stand for such behaviour from any employer, let alone one like Morrisons who is raking in massive profits in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

"Its flagrant profiteering and then cutting our members’ take-home pay is a disgrace.”

The union says workers are being forced to increase their own pension contributions while the supermarket giant reduces its own contributions by the same amount.

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Officials say this will result in workers being significantly worse off in their pay packets and see Morrisons pocket the extra money despite already making nearly a billion pounds in profits.

“Morrisons need to see sense and reverse these changes or they will see the anger of our members on the picket line”

Additional changes workers are being compelled to adopt include a new “pick rate” (the speed at which items are packed from the warehouse shelves), the removal of a service award, enforced changes to jobs roles and a failure to correctly follow absence policies.

Unite national officer Adrian Jones added: “Our members provide a vital service ensuring supermarket shelves are full. Yet Morrisons have decided to unilaterally impose changes to their pensions that will leave them worse off and changes to the conditions that no one wants.

“Morrisons need to see sense and reverse these changes or they will see the anger of our members on the picket line.”

The ballot for Unite members opens today (18 April) and will close on 9 May.

If it is successful, and if no concessions are made by the employer, industrial action will take place this spring and summer.

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