Heinz

[jobo]

Lets get a few things straight £300 for 2 nights work in 1974 ? what a load of rubbish i started at Heinz in 1988 working 4 nights a week and got payed £165 per week this is fact.

Yes once heinz was a good place to work but thats all changed (SOME MORE FACTS)

This strike is not just about a pay rise its about protecting what we have fought for over many years,
But the management that we are dealing with now days are only there to screw us.

The current pay offer is mostly self funding
with the removel of the bonus.
We now pay 2.5% more pension than we did because in the 80s & 90s Heinz to the holiday from paying into the pension scheme.

Managent reward themselves and share holders with big bonuses (upto 18% of there annual wage)
and they are on top money.

We the workers have created that wealth and being the companys main asset we believe we sould be rewarded by a RPI realated pay rise and not one thats self funding.

There are also changes within our bereavement policy and absent procedures which would mean our collegues would lose out financially.

Brabs,

I'd have a lot more sympathy if the Heinz employed union members had stood up for the temps. Half the workforce have only the rights that apply to temp workers. Don't these people also make a big contribution to heinz success?

[josie andrews]

Lets get a few things straight £300 for 2 nights work in 1974 ? what a load of rubbish i started at Heinz in 1988 working 4 nights a week and got payed £165 per week this is fact.

Yes once heinz was a good place to work but thats all changed (SOME MORE FACTS)

This strike is not just about a pay rise its about protecting what we have fought for over many years,
But the management that we are dealing with now days are only there to screw us.

The current pay offer is mostly self funding
with the removel of the bonus.
We now pay 2.5% more pension than we did because in the 80s & 90s Heinz to the holiday from paying into the pension scheme.

Managent reward themselves and share holders with big bonuses (upto 18% of there annual wage)
and they are on top money.

We the workers have created that wealth and being the companys main asset we believe we sould be rewarded by a RPI realated pay rise and not one thats self funding.

There are also changes within our bereavement policy and absent procedures which would mean our collegues would lose out financially.

My husband got a load of the benefits added on, he got his pay, bonuses, holiday pay, shift allowance plus a load of other stuff we were gobsmacked at the time. And you don't need to tell me I am speaking rubbish either! I'm telling you the facts.

In 1979, we were buying a property, the owner worked at Heinz, he was emigrating abroad & he got a pension PLUS a golden handshake of £20,000. That was £2000 more than the property he was selling!!

I was earning as much 15 years ago than I am now what does that tell you? That people aren't getting benefits from employers as they used to.

In the 60's the car workers at Ford were among the highest paid people in the country that again was an elite place to work. They were all very well off compared to everyone else! It is a sign of the times that pay has dropped over the years.

My partner has had his pay reduced by by £3000 in the last two years plus no pay rises for three. We are worse off now than we were five years ago, everything has gone up in price - except ordinary peoples wages.

I wasn't stating that Heinz employees are wrong to strike, I was just commenting on how things used to be & why people queued up & had their name down on waiting lists for jobs there for years. The pay was very high compared to other employment.

[bobbyb]

surely josie it must have been a mistake you cannot acrue a lot of holiday pay,benefits,etc for 2 nights work,also if the other unions had backed the miners thatcher would not have nailed us bto the wall.

[doc]

I fully support the workers in trying to get a RPI related pay rise from what is still a very profitable company. Who here would object to their representatives trying to get an inflation proo rise in pay from a profitable company? If Heinz were struggling financially I could understand them giving a low pay offer, but they aren't.

Sadly the working conditions for the temps is a result of the casualisation of labour brought about by the previous Tory government. I feel that many companies, despite being profitable, are using the current financial position to keep salaries down and to replace permanent staff with temps.

[josie andrews]

surely josie it must have been a mistake you cannot acrue a lot of holiday pay,benefits,etc for 2 nights work,also if the other unions had backed the miners thatcher would not have nailed us bto the wall.

My husband did ask but was told it was correct so what do you do?? Whether the contracts were different then I don't know but that is what he got paid. He was on those continental shifts if that made a difference to the wages!

[brabs007]

As far as i'm aware Heinz are the only company who pay there temps the same as there full time workers and this is only because the TGWU UNION fought for this in 1991 when they moved all there temps to Manpower and believe me every year the Union have to fight to keep them on the same money, the temps would be on a lot lower pay if it wasn't for the Union.

[cpwigan]

Thanks Brabs. You basically confirm that the strike is about the bonus which is what I stated before being told none of us knew anything or were entitled to an opinion.

The Temps do not get the bonus and are not involved in the strike I am led to believe? True / False

If you pick the right shifts at Heinz you are coining it compared to people with a comparative skill set / education. Why are the Heinz folk defending the corner afraid to say so when it is true. I will leave you a quote from a female Heinz emplyee.

I am as thick as 2 short planks, no qualifications and yet I am earning as much as my daughter who went to University has stacks of qualifications. Crazy.

Heinz employees could turn around and say thats because we take no crap and are militant but I like many would say HELLO welcome to the real world. It may come as a shock but hey bosses shaft workers all the time now and guess what sadly they can but what will a strike achieve. NOTHING. In fact worse. It may result in the end of the last source of mass employment in Wigan. Which is so incredibly short sighted it beggars belief.

My family is a Wigan family. Some employed by Heinz which was a scanadalous closed shop and those people that benefitted from that arrangement never once complained about workers rights then did they. Hypocritical? Ex Miners and Ex mill Workers. NB EX I for one do not want to see EX Heinz next to people's names.

[brabs007]

KITTWAZZER

IN THE LAST MONTH OVER 30 PEOPLE HAVE LEFT HEINZ AND GONE TO WORK FOR JAGUAR,OVER 20 LEFT TO GO TO WALKERS CRISPS A FEW YEARS AGO.

[cpwigan]

KITTWAZZER

IN THE LAST MONTH OVER 30 PEOPLE HAVE LEFT HEINZ AND GONE TO WORK FOR JAGUAR,OVER 20 LEFT TO GO TO WALKERS CRISPS A FEW YEARS AGO.

Brabs are apprenticeships with Heinz sought after

If Heinz advertised a dozen jobs in the WEP alone, how many applicants?

[brabs007]

CPWIGAN

Probaly a lot because people believe every thing they hear,
How many applied for Jaguar/Walkers?
the fact is £9.80 basic hourly rate working on the lines at Heinz.