Chris Moore, Gloucestershire Socialist Party
On 12 November, Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, visited the picket line of the nearly 70 Severnside Muller HGV drivers and shunters in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. They have been taking strike action since 25 August, including eleven continuous days.
The dispute was caused by bullying management, imposing rota changes that would force all drivers to increase weekend working to at least one day every week, breaking an agreement signed with Unite earlier this year.
Muller made £16.5 million profit in 2020. It promotes itself as a family product, yet for corporate greed it is prepared to destroy the time drivers are able to spend with their families.
Local management says ‘take it or leave it’ and refuses to negotiate with the local reps. Sharon Graham said: “If local management won’t listen to the local reps, I’m here to escalate the dispute.”
Unite is reballoting to maintain the legal protections which expire after twelve weeks of a strike mandate. It is including in the reballot the issue of the company’s use of outside haulage companies to cover the dispute.
The workplace rep Chris Sattin said: “Today has been brilliant. As part of a union like Unite, we’re all together. We’ve got a chance of fighting organisations like Muller. The attitude of management has made us more determined, and union membership has increased. We’re confident we’ll win.”
Stonehouse drivers deliver to supermarkets nationally, in particular M&S, Waitrose, Sainsburys, Tesco and Lidl. Unite has a strategy called ‘strikes plus’, so pressure will now also be applied to Muller’s supermarket customers. This will use, for instance, Waitrose’s claim that their suppliers act responsibly and support the local community. Senior steward Derrick Arlett-Johnson said: “Some bigger companies try to face down strikes and feel they can do what they want with workers. Which makes our strike all the more important.”
