WREXHAM, North Wales — In a show of determination to win their fight for a union, hundreds of workers at the Oscar Mayer ready-meals factory here voted Nov. 21 by 97% to continue their strike.
The 600 workers, members of Unite, went on strike Sept. 12, fighting against company attempts to impose pay cuts of up to 3,000 pounds ($3,820) by eliminating all paid breaks, extra pay for work on bank holidays and against the company’s refusal to recognize their union.
The strikers returned to work Nov. 21-27, but strike action resumed for another week Nov. 28, with further walkouts planned for Dec. 12 to at least Jan. 9.
Union organizer Dean Shone told the Militant that by returning to work for two one-week periods, “the strikers learned how much production had lowered in their absence and many reported chaos inside the factory.”
“The bosses hadn’t expected them all to rejoin strike action,” Shone said, “but that’s what happened.”
“The vast majority of us came back out, with some new people joining us who are fed up with conditions inside,” Joanna Kowalska, one of the strike leaders, said Dec. 4. “When we went back to work we realized the impact our strike action is having. We are more confident now than before knowing that.”
After the Nov. 21 vote, 150 workers joined in a celebration social. “Once you start something, you cannot go back, you have to see it through,” Kowalska said. “Without a union we have nothing.”
Shone said solidarity was coming from Unite branches across Wales, from the “several thousand Airbus workers, from the nearby Broughton factory, to the Unite union branch that organizes Wrexham council workers.”
Messages of solidarity can be sent to Unite Union, 33 King Street, Wrexham, LL11 1HR, Wales, UK. Email: joanne.Hurford@unitetheunion.org.