Leading restaurant chains, including Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Zizzi, and Wagamama are facing the prospect of “severe disruption” to food supplies in the run-up to the all-important Christmas trading as a result of industrial action.
The GMB union announced today that it was launching a strike ballot amongst almost 600 staff working at Best Food Logistics, the foodservice distributor that was acquired by Tesco’s Booker unit in early 2020.
The workers have rejected a 6% pay offer, which the union said would amount to a real terms pay cut this year and into next. A total of 93% of GMB members rejected the offer, with 85% indicating they wanted to be balloted formally for industrial action.
The GMB stated that dates for the strike ballot will be announced in the coming days.
Nadine Houghton, the union’s National Officer, commented: “These workers bust a gut to deliver fresh, just-in-time food to some of the biggest names in the business.
“Bestfood’s parent companies Booker and Tesco are making incredibly healthy profits and paying large dividends, while leaving these workers crushed by the cost of living.
“Now some of their biggest clients may well be left short this Christmas because they won’t meet GMB’s reasonable request for a pay deal that protects our members through this year and into next with a genuine cost of living increase.”
The prospect of supply disruption for the restaurant chains builds on a year of intensifying union action across the retail and manufacturing sectors, and the wider economy
It was reported yesterday that some of the UK’s leading food and drink brands could face disruption to packaging supplies in the run-up to the Christmas trading period due to possible strike action.
Meanwhile, the Unite union revealed today that around 1,000 of its members at logistics firm GXO would walk out for five days from 31 October as part of a pay dispute.
The union said the strikes by delivery drivers would hit supplies to pubs and venues supplied by major breweries, including Heineken, Stonegate, Admiral Taverns and Shepherd Neame.
NAM Implications:
- All the ingredients of a strike-based Winter of Discontent?
- All based on the premise of any remuneration settlement of less that inflation…
- …being a reduction in real terms.
- And finishing off companies already on the brink…
- A realistic assessment of inevitabilities has to be the first step in optimising what’s left.
