Christmas deliveries to booming High Street giants Sainsbury’s could be halted in their tracks across the region – following a strike threat in the West Midlands.
Unite members at the retailer’s regional distribution centre at Hams Hall, near Coleshill, are to be balloted for industrial action in a protest which could wreck deliveries during a critical trading period.
The ballot has been called after Unite received a final offer of 2.9 per cent, while group profits soared by over 9 per cent year on year, helping boost half-year earnings to £433 million.
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Unite regional official Joe Clarke said more than 1,000 employees, including 700 in the warehouse and around 250 lorry-drivers, were eligible to vote over a two-week period from Friday.
“At the moment, the offer is 2.9 per cent but that is on basic rates of pay, not across the board. The offer does not include shift premiums.
“They have not had an RPI increase for a couple of years and are falling behind with their pay rates.
“We would be in a position to take action in the first week of December and there would be about 300 stores who would not get deliveries in any form at all.
“It is not an ideal time to take action but we are not talking about a militant bunch of people here, we are talking about pragmatic guys who have shown lots of flexibility in relation to their hours and shifts.”
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Mr Clarke said some workers averaged well over 50 hours a week. “They could be working for 15 hours with a lorry. They all work unsocial hours, often seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day on average.
“We have left the door open for improvements but we served notice for a ballot last Friday and the ballot will comnmence this Friday and run for two weeks.”
Sainsbury’s yesterday announced half-year pre-tax profits of £433 million, up 9.1 per cent on the same period in 2012. The retailer has now overtaken Asda and moved into the number two spot for the largest supermarket in the 海角视频, second only to Tesco.
The supermarket giant said the results were “strong” considering the “tough trading environment.”
Like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new stores, were up 1.4 per cent excluding fuel.
Total sales for the 28 weeks to 28 September rose 4.4 per cent to £13.9 billion. Online sales were up 15 per cent while sales at its convenience stores rose more than 20 per cent.
Chief executive Justin King said the firm’s share of the grocery market was at its highest for a decade, after 35 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth.
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But Mr King said the retailer still had a long way to go to catch Tesco in terms of sales – and agreed that shoppers’ finances remained under pressure.
“Average price rises are still ahead of average wage rises. People at the end of the week, at the end of the month, have less money left. That’s the reality we are trading in.”
Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said: “Without question, this is a strong performance from Sainsbury’s.”