Rebecca Hubbard
Posted: Monday, January 16, 2012 2:43 pm

A rolling programme of strike action is set to hit corporate giant Unilever's UK operations as workers step up action to defend their pension scheme.

Unite, the workers' main union, today announced strike action that will hit all the UK sites beginning at 06:59 hours on Wednesday, 18 January, running until 24:00 hours on Saturday, 28 January, 2012.

The stoppages will hit production of leading food and cleaning products including Marmite, Flora, Hellmann's mayonnaise, PG Tips, Pot Noodle, Lynx, Persil and Dove.

The workers are furious that the company is closing their final salary pension scheme, despite earlier assurances to the workforce that it would be retained.  

Unilever admits that there is no financial imperative for shutting the scheme, even though plans to replace it with an inferior career average scheme will see workers lose out on average by 20 per cent with some losing as much as 40 per cent of their retirement savings.

The joint trade unions put forward alternatives to the company to save the scheme, and which would both save the company money and reduce risk, but Unilever management stated there was nothing their workers could do to convince them to keep the scheme open. Further, Unilever is now refusing to meet with Unite at mediators ACAS to discuss solutions to the dispute.

Announcing the strike dates, Unite national officer, Jennie Formby, said: "We have repeatedly called upon this company to talk to us about a sensible solution to this dispute. It is deeply regrettable that Unilever refuses to even sit with us at ACAS. It confirms they are not interested in a common solution and it gives the workforce no other option but to withdraw their labour.

Last December, Unilever's workers took the first ever strike action in the FMCG giant's history. However, instead of responding with a resolution, Unilever in fact cancelled the workers' Christmas celebrations.
"A second round of strikes will soon begin right across the business sending a clear message to management that this workforce will not be bullied or cowed," said Jennie. "Unilever shareholders must start asking searching questions about whether this dispute is doing the business' reputation or operations any good and instruct management to get back round the table and solve this fairly."
The strikes will hit the following plants and products:

·        Purfleet – Hellmann’s mayonnaise, I can’t believe it’s not butter; Flora
·        Trafford Park – PG Tips tea
·        Burton – Marmite 
·        Norwich – Coleman’s mustard and sauces 
·        Crumlin, Northern Ireland – Pot Noodle 
·        Leeds – Dove Deodorant, Lynx, Sure 
·        Port Sunlight – fabric – Comfort, Persil 
·        Warrington – Persil, Omo 
·        Gloucester – Wall’s Ice Cream 

The other sites involved in strike action – Unilever UK (Central Resources) Ltd are:
·        Port Sunlight – R&D site 
·        St David’s Park (Near Ewloe in Wales) – IT site 
·        Colworth, Bedford – R&D site 

 A Unilever product is sold somewhere on the planet every six seconds.