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Christmas turkey strike vote
Workers want a slice of the 14% rise in company profits this year |
Staff at the UK's best-known turkey producer are threatening strike action in the run-up to Christmas.
Workers at Bernard Matthews' factories in Norfolk and Suffolk in England, are being balloted on possible strike action.
The result of the ballot among members of the Transport & General Workers Union should be known next week.
Union anger
The union said staff were angry at the 2.3% pay increase they had been offered. They are demanding a 4.6% rise.
"The company has done very well this year," said a union spokesman.
"Profits are up by 14% and the shareholders have seen the dividends go up by 10%.
"The poultry workers have already rejected the company's pay offer of 2.3%. A revised offer of 2.6% over 18 months, which followed, was rejected as insufficient by the local union representatives," he added.
"We believe it is a fair claim based on the average rise in earnings and one the company can afford. It is really up to the company now to respond positively."
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