Hundreds of Morrisons workers have threatened to launch strike action over a change to their pensions that will leave them worse off by around £500 a year, says Unite union.
The union says “approximately 1,000 Unite members” working at the supermarket’s warehouses in Cheshire and Wakefield are taking part in a ballot to decide whether workers will strike to “protect their pensions and take home pay”.
The new change will allegedly force workers to increase their own pension contributions, while the grocer reduces its contributions by the same amount, allowing for workers’ monthly pay packet to be reduced.
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Unite national officer Adrian Jones added: “Our members provide a vital service ensuring supermarket shelves are full. Yet Morrisons have decided to unilaterally impose changes to their pensions that will leave them worse off and changes to the conditions that no one wants.
“Morrisons need to see sense and reverse these changes or they will see the anger of our members on the picket line.”
Other changes the union is objecting against include a “new unpopular pick rate” (the speed at which items are packed from the warehouse shelves), the removal of a service award and enforced changes to jobs roles.
If voted through, the strike would hit those whose roles include warehouse stock controllers, cooks, canteen staff, and administrators, which help ensure lorries can be loaded with products for delivery to Morrisons stores across the nation.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham added: “Unite is focused on our members’ jobs, pay and conditions and these unmerited changes to workers’ pensions will leave our members worse off every month.
Unite will not stand for such behaviour from any employer, let alone one like Morrisons who is raking in massive profits in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. Its flagrant profiteering and then cutting our members’ take-home pay is a disgrace.”
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