DS Smith workers, who also make packaging for Brewdog, Diageo and McVities vote for industrial action
Amazon faces Black Friday shortages as workers at a packaging firm vote for strike action.
Almost 1,000 GMB members at DS Smith, who also make corrugated packaging for Chivas, Princes and Seabrooks crisps, are balloting for industrial action over a real terms pay cut.
In total 93 per cent of the GMB Members at the company, which count Brewdog, PepsiCo, Princes and KP snacks among its clients, voted in favour of industrial action.
Workers in five sites – Louth, Lincolnshire, Featherstone, in Yorkshire, Clay Cross, in Derbyshire, Devizes, in Wiltshire and Livingston, in Scotland could take part in the strike, as early as the end of the month.
DS Smith has tabled an offer of a 3 per cent consolidated increase plus a non-consolidated payment of £760 for 2022-23 which, with inflation at 12.3 per cent, represents a massive real terms pay cut for members who worked throughout the pandemic.
Eamon O’Hearn, GMB National Secretary, said:
“DS Smith members worked through the pandemic, helping keep the company afloat through troubled times.
“It turns out that the company was hugely profitable during the pandemic, now they need to company to step up and help them through the cost of living crisis.
“A strike at DS Smith could have serious implications across a range of household names – not least Amazon which gets packaging from the company.
“DS Smith can afford to do better – they need to table a serious offer that respects the contribution of our members, to nip this industrial action in the bud.”
