Union members employed by a Scottish soft drinks manufacturer are to strike on Friday, warning the company is “tarnishing its reputation” as industrial action continues.
Unite union members employed by Irn Bru manufacturer AG Barr will take strike action at 12.01am on Friday after stating a pay increase “represents a significant real-terms pay cut”.
Strike action will continue until 12.59pm on the same day.
Staff are to stage a picket line and demonstration outside their employer’s headquarters in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire.
Andrew Brown, Unite’s industrial officer, said: “This week AG Barr announced that pre-tax profits were up 12.6% to £27.8 million over the first six months of this year.
READ MORE: Shares surge in owner of Glasgow's famous Horseshoe Bar
“We have a cash-rich company with tens of millions sitting in the bank.
“The company refuses to make a fair pay offer despite our members helping to make these massive profits.
“The 5% pay offer on the table represents a significant real-terms pay cut and our members are prepared to fight on to get what they deserve.
“We would urge the company to get back round the table before there is any further escalation in this dispute which is tarnishing its reputation.”
A spokesperson for AG Barr said: “We’re disappointed in the decision by 11 of our Scottish based HGV1 drivers, represented by Unite the union, to take industrial action.
“We made a pay offer that we believe is fair and competitive – in line with what has been agreed with our other employees. We believe we have a responsibility to be fair to everyone.
“We are committed to continuing to work with our trunker and shunter drivers and their trade union representatives to find a positive and constructive resolution.
“We have contingency plans in place to maintain customer service.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here