By Mike Black
WORKERS AT the factory that makes Humbug sweets are striking against their Scrooge employer.
GMB members at the Tangerine Confectionery site in York are in dispute with their bosses, who have been eroding conditions and making cuts to pension contributions. The 2016 pay offer was a measly 1 per cent increase backdated to January 2016, followed by a 1.25 per cent increase, with an extra 15 minute tea break, backdated to April. Members have rejected this insult and voted for a series of 24-hour strikes.
However, after the first successful strike, senior GMB organiser Desiree Wilburn cancelled the next 24-hour action in favour of a one-hour stoppage on each of the three shifts. This was apparently to ensure the minimum impact on members’ pay before Christmas and the maximum impact on the employer. Rank and file members should protest against this sabotage, which in fact ensures minimum impact on the employer, and demand the reinstatement of the 24-hour strikes.
