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Unilever Workers Announce 12 Days Of Strikes Starting 17 January Over End To Final Salary Pensions

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First Posted: 07/01/12 14:40 Updated: 07/01/12 19:40

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Workers at consumer goods giant Unilever are to stage a new series of strikes in a huge escalation of a row over pensions, it was announced today.

Leaders of three trade unions decided to call strikes for up to 12 days starting on January 17 in protest at the ending of Unilever's final salary pension scheme.

Thousands of employees will be involved at sites across the country including Purfleet, Port Sunlight, Warrington, Leeds, Crumlin, Gloucester, Manchester, Burton-on-Trent and Cheste.

In a statement Unilever said that it was "deeply concerned" by the unions' "disproportionate" decision.

Unilver said: "We believe the provision of final salary pensions is a broken model which is no longer appropriate for Unilever.

"It is our responsibility to protect the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of our business, and to do so is in the best interests of our people.

"It is currently not clear how the dispute with the trade unions will be resolved - but we are continuing to urge our employees who have participated in industrial action to give further objective consideration to the very competitive new arrangements."

Unions said the action will hit production of goods including Dove, Marmite, PG Tips, Pot Noodle and Hellman's Mayonnaise.

Unite, the GMB and Usdaw say the company's plans to axe the final salary pension scheme will see the retirement income of thousands of staff slashed by up to 40%.

Jennie Formby, national officer of Unite, said after today's union meeting in Liverpool: "It would seem that Unilever believed the workers would give up after one day's strike but they are badly mistaken.

"The workforce is angry that the company has refused to meet us or to attend talks at the conciliation service Acas."

Allan Black, national officer of the GMB said: "Unilever need to get the message that profitable companies will not be allowed to walk away from their savings commitments to their loyal workforce."

Mr Black warned of further strikes unless the row is resolved.

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Workers at consumer goods giant Unilever are to stage a new series of strikes in a huge escalation of a row over pensions, it was announced today. Leaders of three trade unions decided to call stri...
Workers at consumer goods giant Unilever are to stage a new series of strikes in a huge escalation of a row over pensions, it was announced today. Leaders of three trade unions decided to call stri...
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hartillbrian
10 Fans
11:00 on 09/01/2012
I don't think this is a good time to push a major employer to hard in this economic climate. Unilever could easily up sticks and produce its products in a multiude of other countries at a fraction of the labour costs, it has to pay in the UK. How would the Unilever workers feel if they were all on the dole? As many other countries would be prepared to welcome Unileaver with open arms. There are not many coal mines about these days and a lot of coal comes in from abroad. Get the picture.
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sargeboy2
0 Fans
09:32 on 09/01/2012
think on we had a coal industry, we had a car industry, we had a great mail service,
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
BuxtonBlueCat
Most beautiful cat in the world! :)
25 Fans
 
09:48 on 09/01/2012
Yes, and greedy unions destroyed them all.
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blujag
26 Fans
07:59 on 09/01/2012
Unilever will just close down here and move to Poland or the like, their goods will still be on the shelves over here , within two days of being produced, sorry but it's the world we live in.
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FedUpWoman
13 Fans
22:13 on 08/01/2012
Why are all the comments on this subject blank? Pensions are deferred salary - workers pay into them. In the 1980's and 1990's companies had 'pensions holidays' because their pension funds were awash with money. At the same time, workers were still obliged to pay their contributions. Successive governments have failed to do anything to protect workers when their employers, including very infamously, Robert Maxwell, have treated pension funds as their own golden geese and borrowed against money that was NOT theirs. Then there have been other private pension schemes - most notably Equitable Life. Governments since these debacles have done absolutely NOTHING to protect 'ordinary' people from predatory companies.

Shame on you all. Just ask what sort of pension scheme YOUR employer, your MP, your Prime Minister has - that's right, a FINAL SALARY pension scheme. Do ask how long they have to be in their job BEFORE they can collect the kind of annual pension most of us can't even contemplate earning before retirement.

Go on Huff Post - make this comment go away too.
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martin d
on a mission to crush daily mail readers
128 Fans
06:24 on 09/01/2012
I like you,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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chiefofcdf
6 Fans
21:02 on 08/01/2012
Simple solution to all our woes.....Get Rid Of The Unions!
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martin d
on a mission to crush daily mail readers
128 Fans
06:25 on 09/01/2012
And?????????????????????? if you feel workers representatives are a problem please elaborate
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kargo
0 Fans
09:23 on 09/01/2012
idiot
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mrangry
22 Fans
20:10 on 08/01/2012
Well good luck to you is all I can say. How many people passing comments on here work for companies that have closed their final salary pension scheme's, my guess is quiet alot, as it is pretty commonplace, and the reason given is always the same, i.e. the company can't afford it anymore. Well you may think unilever are making healthy profits but striking is obviously going to effect those profits, and that in turn effects the money available for the pension scheme. So when it comes to strike action your dammed if you do and dammed if you don't, the only winners (as usual) are the directors with their big bonuses (which always seem to get payed come what may).
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indiasign
9 Fans
19:29 on 08/01/2012
Good luck to them. As usual, the employer simply expects the workforce to roll over and take whatever crumbs they are offered.

To those criticising the Unions for calling the strike - they didn't. They balloted their members, who voted for strike action

And, in anticipation of any comments along the lines of "The workers only do what the Union tells them" - get real!!

Nobody would vote for losing 12 days pay in these hard times unless there was something pretty important on the line, no matter what their Union Rep told them!!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fozwords
My cup is always half full
57 Fans
19:12 on 08/01/2012
If they do this they will only have themselves to blame if job cuts are a result, strikes never solve anything and I have been in a few, one up to 12 weeks long, it broke my bank and for no extra pay, all they do is lose jobs and cost you money.
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barnsley born
39 Fans
19:58 on 08/01/2012
And i suppose if the company turns round tommorrow and tells its workers,they aint getting paid either,that would be ok for you...god your such a wimp..grow a pair man..and before you start preaching about the length of time you were on strike...try 12 months..but i still have fight..
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martin d
on a mission to crush daily mail readers
128 Fans
06:27 on 09/01/2012
Pretty obvious you had no fight in you in the beginning,,,, right is right
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Mandas75
1 Fans
17:35 on 08/01/2012
I work for unilever.I wish everyone would understand that we don't want to go on strike,but the company from the start have lied and lied again for the reason why there doing this.1st they said it costs to much,fine if that was the case so be it.we wouldn't like it but we would understand.when the union looked at the pension figures they saw that it 3 years the pension fund deficit would be zero.when the company realised we found this out the changed the reason for closing the pension scheme to'its a new company policy not to have a final salary pension for any of our employees'..now they are saying that it costs to much..it's not like unilever is in trouble,profits are going through the roof..google it and see for yourself.plus what really annoying everyone is that our beloved CEO has been awarded 1.3 million pound of shares,plus 7 other chiefs have been given bonuses of over 750,000 pound.,we just want what we have paid for and they promised us.and to everyone who is saying that they would just shut everything down and move it abroad..the so called idiots who work for unilever in the uk are the one of the most cost effective and productive workersunilever have in the world .I work at the Leeds factory making deodorants.and even the company have said we are one of the most profitable factories in the world.
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barnsley born
39 Fans
17:57 on 08/01/2012
Well you have my support feller..ignore the haters...goodluck.
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eyedinnot
7 Fans
20:28 on 08/01/2012
I fully support what you are doing, it's so sad that a company with such a proud tradition of good relations with the workfore are now treating you like this! Good luck to you all!
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digbury
31 Fans
16:33 on 08/01/2012
This strike is an excellent way to get Unilever to close their UK operation and move the business, or much of it, abroad. Then the very same strikers will be redundant and moaning because there are no jobs available!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fozwords
My cup is always half full
57 Fans
19:13 on 08/01/2012
Sad but regrettably very true
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stviej
5 Fans
14:46 on 08/01/2012
To any Unilevers employees looking at this... you quit and let me have your job...you sad pillocks.
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An Independent Woman
La di da
418 Fans
17:52 on 08/01/2012
And the company, I don't care which, wins the war never having to go into battle. Without the common voice of the unions, the company holds all the power.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fozwords
My cup is always half full
57 Fans
19:14 on 08/01/2012
They always have and always will
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katertaif
105 Fans
12:59 on 08/01/2012
That's the way to keep your jobs boys and girls,go on strike.! Then when Unilever start anouncing redundancies and/or moving their business to another country. Your same union leaders will scratch ther heads in bewilderment, and blame the tories/ greedy bosses/shareholders/directors, in fact anyone but the real culprits - themselves. A starnge fact, In many many years of listening to the union so called leaders on about industrial action for this that or the other reason, Ihave never ever heard one union man admit to being wrong, even once. They obviously should be ruining the country, er sorry, that should read running. They claim to know exactly what is needed. Then they always do.
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dc2473
6 Fans
17:06 on 08/01/2012
Very condescending comment referring to these people as boys and girls.

Secondly two decades of a labour government and a banking community which took advantage of their incompetence has caused the countries economic problems !
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katertaif
105 Fans
04:52 on 09/01/2012
I do apologise dc2473 if I sounded condescending, I had no intentions of doing so.It seemed to me to be the better of a number of ways of putting it. As for the banking community, I fully agree with you, A number of factors have contributed to our present dire predicament, not least 13 years of Labour Mismanagement, having said that, I do not believe the Conservatives are any more adept. I don't believe though you can underestimate the damage caused by unions, over the last 50 years or so. There was a good case for the unions,without them working conditions may well still be victorian. I do not believe they handled their power wisely. We have no mass car making industry any more, what little we have is foreign owned the unions caused that. ditto with the shipbuilding industry. Work to rules, go slows, strikes, job protection etc. destroyed that. This inevitably affected British Steel, who had their own labour troubles anyway.. The bankers had nothing to do with all that. Still union leaders strut the political stage, either unknowing or uncaring of the damage they cause. Apart from Scargill of course, his actions were deliberate, and highly successful (from his point of view)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fozwords
My cup is always half full
57 Fans
19:15 on 08/01/2012
Thats the same union leaders on hundreds of thousands a year in fat cat salaries
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katertaif
105 Fans
04:57 on 09/01/2012
Quite right Fozwords. It seems strange that the only time they actually earn the money they get (which as you say puts them in the fat cat bracket) is when they are causeing trouble. Not of course that they are ever wrong. I wonder if they actually believe that in their own minds.
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pether
0 Fans
12:44 on 08/01/2012
Let's hope Unilever sack the lot. I work in the private sector but have no final salary sheme from any of the companies I worked for and what I have I have contributed myself through hard work.
It's time the Union leaders stopped their commercial thuggish behaviour and recognised that their continued whingeing attitude of disruption resolves nothing. Strange how the Union leaders don't suffer during strikes by losing their 6 figure salaries and perks.
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Mandas75
1 Fans
17:36 on 08/01/2012
My what a pray you are.
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barnsley born
39 Fans
18:00 on 08/01/2012
you mean prat....id call him someting stronger...if theyd allow it..goodluck.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fozwords
My cup is always half full
57 Fans
19:16 on 08/01/2012
Never the less its true
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eyedinnot
7 Fans
00:17 on 09/01/2012
The thuggish behaviour here is being perpetrated by the company! They have a proud tradition of excellent relations with the workforce, the pension sceme is affordable and sustainable (just like the NHS scheme) but they are choosing to close it and treat the workers like dirt. The CEO and other executives meanwhile have millions paid into THIER pension pots........HARDLY FAIR!
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Ani-Me
0 Fans
12:24 on 08/01/2012
They should be grateful they have a job! I have been made unemployed for 3 years, registered with over 10 employment agencies and applied for over 200 jobs but nothing! I would just be grateful to have a job, a pension would be the last thing on my mind right now!!!
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martin d
on a mission to crush daily mail readers
128 Fans
06:32 on 09/01/2012
stupid is stupid does?????????
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KarenEvans
7 Fans
 
11:20 on 08/01/2012
Good luck to them. I am fed up with hearing that the workers are again being made to pay, rather than the shareholders. This country is going back around a hundred years, when "peasants" hade no workers rights. It is time for companies to acknowledge that they should look after their workers, as they would be making no huge profits without them.
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goatwin
7 Fans
15:54 on 08/01/2012
I'm with you, since the weakening of Unions through legislation in the early 80,s the gap between high and low pay as been getting bigger and will continue to do so . All these people that whinge about unions are probably enjoying a 40 hour working week, holiday pay and health a safety protection, equality at work, non discrimination. All fought for in long hard campaigns to achieve this and even those who didn't join unions were quite happy to benefit from it.
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geezer726
2 Fans
18:51 on 08/01/2012
just out of interest..when the workers are taking there fare share of the huge profits ,does that mean there going to take there fare share of the potential huge losses when a companies struggling,as shareholders do.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Fozwords
My cup is always half full
57 Fans
19:17 on 08/01/2012
You wil; be unpopular for saying that
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KarenEvans
7 Fans
 
23:34 on 08/01/2012
You are obviously one of the privelidged people who have spare cash to buy shares. I think you will find factory workers trying to keep up with rising bills and food for their families on their wages, with no spare cash to buy shares.
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