{"id":138122,"date":"2021-09-08T13:23:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T13:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=138122"},"modified":"2021-09-08T13:23:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T13:23:26","slug":"weetabix-workers-to-strike-and-union-says-it-will-result-in-cereal-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/business\/weetabix-workers-to-strike-and-union-says-it-will-result-in-cereal-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"Weetabix workers to strike – and union says it will result in cereal shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"
Workers at two Weetabix plants are to stage strike action later this month in a dispute over contracts, trade union Unite said.<\/p>\n
Members of the union working as engineers will walk out for 48 hours from 21 September.<\/p>\n
This will be followed by strikes on the same day every week throughout the autumn until 30 November.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Unite said the strike would cause “widespread delays to production and lead to shortages of Weetabix and other popular products made at the factories including Alpen, Weetos and Oatibix”.<\/p>\n
Sky News has contacted Weetabix for comment.<\/p>\n
Unite said the industrial action was being carried out “in opposition to the company’s plans to fire and rehire them on vastly inferior contracts”.<\/p>\n
It claimed that workers faced changes to shift and working patterns which would result in some being up to £5,000 a year worse off.<\/p>\n
Unite’s recently-elected general secretary Sharon Graham<\/strong> said: “The idea of ‘fire and rehire’ is abhorrent to me.<\/p>\n “If Weetabix decide to go down this route and they overstep the line then I will absolutely defend our members.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Strike action had originally been scheduled for June but was postponed to allow for talks with the company.<\/p>\n Those talks led to new proposals being put to the workers – which were overwhelmingly rejected in a ballot.<\/p>\n