Strikes are to take place at five Princes factories in the UK as a dispute over pay deepens.
Before Christmas, staff at a Princes drinks facility in Cardiff walked out on two occasions.
According to union officials, the action followed a move by Princes’ new owner, Italy’s Newlat, to rescind a pay offer for staff.
An agreement on pay has yet to be reached and trade union Unite yesterday (2 January) announced strike dates across five plants, including the site in the Welsh capital.
Staff will strike on dates between 6 and 18 January at Princes’ facilities in Cardiff, Bradford, Glasgow, Long Sutton and Wisbech.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Newlat need to get back round the negotiating table before its customers discover they won’t have any products on their shelves. Our members work in back-breaking roles on low pay and want a fair slice of the pie.”
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According to Unite, staff had been offered a 4-7% pay rise dependent on salary by Princes’ previous owner, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi.
Newlat bought Princes from Mitsubishi for £700m ($893.6m) in May, completing the acquisition in July. Princes’ new owner has proposed a 3% rise, Unite says.
A Princes spokesperson told Just Food the company recognises the “difficult economic circumstances” of its colleagues and cited the impacts of Covid-19, Brexit and inflation as reasons for the lower offer.
The spokesperson added: “It is now clear to us that it is becoming increasingly difficult to resolve this dispute with Unite. We have engaged the union in discussions for several months, tabled an above-inflation pay rise and had offered to backdate this to April 2024 whilst discussions were ongoing but Unite advised us that they would not permit the business to do this.
“The Princes board fully understands our very serious obligation to look after our colleagues but we have that exact same obligation to keeping Princes a sustainable business in the long term through focussing on managing our costs and being a competitive supplier of UK food and beverages.”
Princes manufactures shelf-stable food and drinks under brands including Princes, Branston and Crosse & Blackwell. It is also a private-label manufacturer.
Following the deal to buy Princes, Newlat said the combined figures for the businesses showed pro-forma sales of approximately €2.8bn ($2.88bn), with an adjusted EBITDA of about €188m.
