Workers at JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) in Banbury are ramping up pressure in the ‘fire and rehire’ dispute with a protest on Saturday (May 1), followed up with a 24 hour strike on May 8 and 9.
The…Read more…
‘Toxic’ firm’s threat to ‘fire and rehire’ 300 staff
Coffee-drinking supermarket customers will be a key element in the ‘fire and rehire’ dispute affecting nearly 300 employees at the JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) site in Banbury, Oxfordshire, as the firm…Read more…
‘Immoral’ fire and rehire plans brewing
Plans to ‘fire and rehire’ nearly 300 workers at the JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) site in Banbury, Oxfordshire could lead to industrial action at the coffee factory, Unite warned today (Thursday March…Read more…
Sainsbury’s ‘pathetic’ pay rise slammed
Sainsbury’s 2021 pay offer to staff – a 20p increase to £9.50 an hour – has been ‘put to shame’ by Morrisons’ pledge to pay workers £10 an hour from April, Unite said today (February 26). Unite, the…Read more…
Heineken axes 8,000 jobs worldwide
Heineken’s announcement that it is cutting its global workforce by 8,000 jobs as the pandemic continues to hit the hospitality sector is ‘a matter for great concern’, Unite said today (February 10)….Read more…
Video of the year – Our proud rural history
Every day on UniteLIVE during the festive period, we highlight our videos of the year. Today, we feature a film from July, where Unite general secretary Len McCluskey sends a message about…Read more…
Fat cats cashing in on Covid
While the pandemic has claimed tens of thousands of lives and destroyed the livelihoods of many thousands more, some large companies have cashed in on a Covid-19 business bonanza. Still, these fat…Read more…
‘Well be fighting tooth and nail for our members’
Even those considered the safest jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic are not immune to being cut, after major supermarket retailer Sainbury’s today (November 5) announced an astonishing 3,500 job…Read more…
The dark underbelly of the food industry
Recently, a number of celebrity chefs and restauranteurs, including Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, signed a letter calling on Boris Johnson to bar substandard food entering the UK…Read more…
A ‘terrible, retrograde step for UK farming’
What is more important than the safety of the food we put into our mouths each day? UK farming is renowned for its stringent standards, but now, with yesterday’s (October 12) passing of the…Read more…
Bernard Matthews bus win
Bernard Matthews has suspended fares on company-subsidised buses to all of its sites to help prevent the spread of coronavirus through car sharing, following pressure from Unite.
The post Bernard…Read more…
Eat out to help out?
The hospitality industry is among the hardest hit sectors amid the Covid-19 pandemic – a recent report last week found that a shocking one in three furloughed workers’ jobs in the sector are at risk….Read more…
‘Serious mistake’
Unite has warned Unilever that plans to sell off its £2.75 billion a year tea business, reiterated today (July 23) during the company’s announcement of its half-yearly financial performance, are a…Read more…
‘Fighting back against tyranny’
Covid-19 has put food and agriculture workers at the heart of a national and international fight and highlighted all that’s wrong with the food system — dysfunctional, fragile, exploitative, wholly…Read more…
‘A disaster waiting to happen’
For many months Unite’s food and agriculture activists have been extremely concerned over the way workers are being packed into factories and field, many of them migrant workers often living in…Read more…
‘They are putting people at risk’
When meat processing worker ‘Alex’ tested positive for coronavirus, he was forced to stay off work for a number of weeks, along with the colleagues he shares a house with.
The housemates were given…Read more…
Exploitation of migrant workers and coronavirus link must end
The link between outbreaks of Covid-19 at meat processing plants and the sector’s widespread exploitation of migrant workers on low pay and insecure contracts ‘must be addressed’, Unite said last…Read more…
Choc workers lose out on bonus pay parity
There is ‘growing resentment’ amongst Cadbury workers denied bonuses for working through the coronavirus pandemic that have been paid to US and EU staff employed by the chocolate maker’s parent…Read more…
Three food processing plants close amid outbreak fears
Unite’s warning that food processing plants could turn into hotspots for Covid-19 transmission is coming to pass after three factories have shut amid suspected coronavirus outbreaks. On Thursday…Read more…
Unite support for members in ‘grim times’ plant closure
The news that over 430 jobs are under threat at the Bakkavor food manufacturing plant at Spalding, Lincolnshire is ‘a bitter pill’ for the workforce, Unite said today (Tuesday June 9).
The post…Read more…