Threat of Christmas ‘bread drought’ in bakery drivers’ pay dispute
SUPERMARKET customers could face a Christmas ‘bread drought’ with drivers at the Kingsmill bakery in West Bromwich potentially set to strike in a pay dispute.
Around 130 drivers, maintenance staff and security personnel, all members of union Unite, are reportedly being balloted for industrial action. The ballot closes on Monday.
The Birmingham Road bakery site is said to deliver 1.5 million loaves each week to the West and East Midlands, as well as rolls, muffins and toasties.
Bakery bosses had offered a two per cent pay rise, plus £150 for the year starting April 2017 and the same offer for the year starting April 2018.
Kingsmill drivers are said to earn up to £28,000-a-year, while drivers employed by Sainsbury’s are on £42,000. Unite says that drivers at the company’s Stockport depot earn £1,500-a-year more than those at West Bromwich, throwing up serious ‘equal pay’ issues.
Unite lead officer for the food sector Joe Clarke said: “What we have here is a highly profitable global company paying our Kingsmill members well below what competitors are paying their drivers for the same work. In some cases, the differential is as much as £14,000-a-year which is totally unacceptable. Then it has the nerve to add insult to injury by offering a paltry pay deal far below the current rate of inflation. Our members want a fair offer that reflects the cost of living.
“A strike could cause havoc to bread deliveries to supermarkets, such as Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, across the North West and the Midlands, as 1.5 million loaves a week won’t be delivered.
“Customers of major supermar- kets in these regions seeking bread and other bakery products in the run-up to Christmas could be faced with bread shortages.
“So you will have a situation where loaves will be coming off the production lines, but no one will be delivering them.
“There will be ‘bread mountains’ at the West Bromwich depot, but a ‘bread drought’ across great swathes of England.”