Striking Cranswick butchers 'face 20% pay cut', GMB claims
BUTCHERS at a Preston food factory are striking over pay cuts.
Staff at Cranswick Country Foods are facing a cut of about 20 per cent, according to union GMB.
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Workers on strike at Cranswick, Preston
The company’s management is canceling previous contracts and asking staff to reapply for their positions under what the union says are less favourable terms.
Butchers are now on strike for two days of their five-day working week.
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GMB officer Dave Oglesby said: “We don’t want to be in this position but we’ve been backed into a corner.
“The company has issued a notice to terminate contracts and re-engage on new terms, which result in significant pay cuts.
“Once these changes have been contracted, they could cut the pay again.”
He said the union had already negotiated a better deal than the one first proposed.
Mr Oglesby said: “We started at 30 per cent. We’ve had some negotiation but the cuts are still in the 20 per cent range.”
The officer said butchers are highly skilled staff and have already endured a long pay freeze.
He said: “They work on a production line, they’re butchers and it’s dangerous work.”
Company managing director Chris Aldersley said Cranswick Country Foods had invested in its facilities to make the lives of staff easier.
He said: “We’ve done a number of investments across the site which have resulted in better working conditions.
“We’ve consulted at length with GMB before coming to these terms.”
Cranswick Country Foods made a pre-tax profit of £48.4 million in the year ending March 31, up three per cent on the previous year.
But Mr Aldersley said the company was a rare success story in its industry and the new terms were competitive.
He said: “We operate very ethically. We’re regularly audited by external and internal bodies and we run what’s seen as a fit and safe business.
“The last investment we did here actually increased the workforce. This is about making sure we have got a sustainable future.”
GMB said Cranswick Country Foods originally planned to cut butchers’ pay to £9.50 an hour but it had negotiated that up.
Mr Oglesby said: “It would be a flat rate of something like £11 an hour but they will be doing more dangerous work faster.”
The strike, which sees staff off work on Thursday and Friday, could continue until mid-October.
There are 78 GMB members affected by the cuts and 95 per cent of them voted for industrial action.
Cranswick Country Foods employs about 1,200 people.
Comments
by piddsta
Tuesday, September 04 2012, 7:00AM
“I heard the MD on radio, slithering around the questions being asked. Nasty.
Troubled times at Rupture Farms. When are they going to bring back Scrab Cakes and Paramite Pies?”
by smartguy1
Saturday, September 01 2012, 9:17AM
“@BadCompany2...at last I was hoping for a response from someone who knows the conditions. I posted my comments to generate a reply from someone such as yourself and apologise if some of my facts were incorrect. I do not think I am better than anyone else. I too have been a factory worker in my time and was lucky enough to move on.
If you have a genuine Safety problem you should first contact your Health & Safety representative at Cranswick and if you do not get a decent response then go to the Health & Safety Executive direct. I believe their nearest office to Hull is Sheffield. No-one should be expected to work in conditions that are not safe.
Hull Daily Mail - Perhaps you should investigate this further.
BadCompany 2.. Good luck with your dispute.”
by BADCOMPANY2
Saturday, September 01 2012, 8:56AM
“to smartguy1 you are one person who should know how this company works you live in it,s shadow its all lies there is no new technology in the boning hall,the new technology is in the abbattoir, they just moved the boning hall around so they could get more pace lines in so they could keep up with the kill . They kill 600 pigs an hour so we have to butcher 600 pigs an hour so they have room to chill the pigs , we have gone from butchering 480 an hour to over 600pigs an hour, it can and does go over 650 an hour . people are getting hurt ever day (stabbings) as the lines are shorter so no room to move , management know about this there reply is ,we have insurance so dont worry about a few cuts not to mention men fainting on the line because its to fast . A 3% rise is very good this company,s profits go up every year last pay rise i had was 12 years ago and now a 20% to 30% depending on what we butcher you dont know how the wage system works ,cranswick have done very well with this system for over 25 years.To all the people who say i should be luckly to have a job you come and try it ,i have seen many people come and try it over the years british and overseas men and women, cranswick has a very high number of staff turn around ,people only work and put up with this vindictive bullying firm for the wage they get, the management in the butchery department its a joke if you can not keep up you get taken to the office and threatened with the sack they have no man mamagement skills. I could go on and on about the things that happen in there but whats the point when people like you who think your better then every body else and lets not forget am just a factory worker you know the type can not do any thing else other then factory work , i may have spelt a few words wrong please forgive me (just a factory worker)”
by smartguy1
Friday, August 31 2012, 9:29PM
“Just wondered why my last comment wasn't printed and also why does it show there are no comments when there are five, six now!!”
by smartguy1
Friday, August 31 2012, 9:23PM
“First of all I do not work for Cranswick but am aware of some of the facts that have not been published here.
Cranswick has invested heavily in it's site on Staithes Road over the last 20 years that I have lived in Preston. A rise in pre tax profits of 3% is hardly a fantastic increase but it shows steady growth especially in the current climate with rising costs and the general public cutting back on everything including food.
As I understand it the company has made the manufacturing more efficient therefore improving the amount of pigs it can put through the factory. Now if this means more work for the butchers then maybe that is due to the previous machinery and procedures being out of date so they could not be as efficient themselves due to the machinery they were using. I also understand that they got paid by the pig and if the new technology means they can butcher say twice as many pigs then this would mean the company paying them twice as much as they were being paid before. You cannot expect a company to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds or even millions to improve it's efficiency and then pay it's workers a lot more money. What should happen is that the company should ensure the butchers are not earning less (per hour / per week) than they were before. They will be earning less money per pig wholly because of the new technology.
I expect to get some red arrows here but first before you hit the red arrow think about that HDM haven't printed all the facts, secondly I would not want any employee to have to earn less money on a weekly basis and third Mr Oglesby said: "It would be a flat rate of something like £11 an hour but they will be doing more dangerous work faster." Now in any disputes negotiations etc the facts should be factual and not 'something like'. Lots of people do 'dangerous work'. I used to work in a steel shop using all sorts of dangerous machinery but if my employer bought me a new saw that cut the steel faster I could hardly expect a pay rise because I was handling more steel.
My last point is that there are currently a massive amount of unemployed people and having been a victim of redundancy due to recession twice in the last 5 years just remember it's better to have a job than have not.”
by dascodave
Friday, August 31 2012, 6:36PM
“If the M/D wants to comment on here to prove that he's taking a 20% pay cut also then I think its fare that the workforce should too....”
by dascodave
Friday, August 31 2012, 6:21PM
“So £48.4m profit is not enough then and they need to reduce the workers wages to get more profit?.I hope the workers bring this horrid company to its knees cos lord knows they deserve it the greedy greedy pigs..............................”
by AstonomiaSK
Friday, August 31 2012, 11:57AM
“The last time my cousin left a comment on here about the company he was removed from posting here, someone at the company has the power to silence the media.”
by MrHull
Friday, August 31 2012, 9:43AM
“I wonder if Company managing director Chris Aldersley is also taking a 20% pay cut.
No doubt he will be in for a bonus if he manages to cut his wage bill.”
by arntdullinul
Friday, August 31 2012, 9:05AM
“Pre tax profits up three percent on the previous year (common HDM what were the profits up year on year?) Dividends and Director's pay no doubt increased in line and boosted even more by the ConDem tax custs for the high earners. A classic example of this Government's Policies 'To make the rich work harder you pay them more and to make the poor work harder you pay them less'.”