Iain Dalton, Socialist Party Yorkshire
On their first three days of strike action from 23 May, Unite members in Morrisons took to the picket line outside the J41 site in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and at Gadbrook in Cheshire. Their dispute is over attacks on pensions and other conditions.
Pension contributions were unilaterally changed earlier this year, from a 5% company / 3% employee split, to 4% each with plans to go further, alongside scrapping long-service payments.
Due to pressure, the company has now reintroduced a limited long-service scheme and says it will leave the pension changes at 4%, but that is still worse than the position workers were in just months ago.
Workers on the Wakefield picket line explained to us that there had been a deterioration in the company for years, particularly accelerated since Morrisons was taken over by a private equity firm and loaded up with debt to do so. There has been grievance after grievance in recent months. One worker told us that they are given just four minutes to go to the toilet, and are pounced on by a manager if they take five.
Usdaw, the majority union across Morrisons, has also been preparing for a strike ballot over these attacks, and pay negotiations are apparently ongoing. Usdaw’s recognition agreement with Morrisons locks it into binding arbitration if pay can’t be settled through negotiation, but that’s not the case for pensions. Any action should be coordinated by the two unions.
Morrisons has being telling workers that it’s struggling, but then it also tells shareholders that it’s moving in the right direction. The company still made £76 million in profit in 2022-23.
But this shows why the big retail companies like Morrisons should be taken out of the hands of the profiteers and brought into public ownership under democratic workers’ control, so their resources can be used to guarantee decent pay and conditions for workers and high-quality, affordable food for everyone.
