Cadbury’s strike closer
A strike at Britain’s leading chocolate maker Cadbury’s, drew one step closer on Saturday 18 July as workers begin to vote on action against the company’s broken pay promises.
The union Unite is angry that Cadbury’s 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 1300-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, says 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’s seeks to use a recession to snatch back money meant for workers. We ask Cadbury’s now to honour their 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’s 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.
