The planned strike at Morrisons has been averted at the last minute, after the Transport and General Workers’ Union and the GMB reached agreement with the supermarket chain.
Union members had threatened to strike tomorrow, over plans to cut up to 2,500 distribution jobs, which had been announced without consultation.
But after negotiations went on until late last night, the T&G said that the key objective of securing a national agreement that covers in-house T&G and GMB depots had been achieved.
The agreement also establishes a national consultative forum which will involve third party contractors as well as in-house shop stewards.
The unions now have commitments from the company on protecting jobs and on transfers following the company announcement that they plan to close three depots and cut 2,500 jobs.
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A £1,000 additional payment has also been agreed for all those to be made redundant on top of the existing redundancy agreements.
Brian Revell, T&G national organiser, said: “We have achieved the key objective of establishing a national agreement with Morrisons and a national consultative structure involving shop stewards employed by Morrisons and by third party contractors.”
