Oscar Mayer Statement
In response to the ongoing strike action involving a minority of colleagues at our site in Wrexham, we wish to set out the facts in relation to claims made by Unite the Union.
Oscar Mayer operates in the highly competitive own-label grocery sector, producing ready meals for retailers. Unfortunately, the company has been loss-making and continues to operate in a challenging economic environment.
The management team, with the support of investors, has been working hard to put the business on a stable footing, with some success. However, the unexpected loss of a significant customer contract in early 2024 had a detrimental impact that required us to explore options to reduce costs and ensure the long-term commercial viability of the company.
We considered a number of options, including the potential for significantly reducing roles at our Wrexham site, but the decision was taken to protect as many jobs as possible, and minimise the impact on colleagues.
The company therefore proposed making some changes to our colleagues’ terms and conditions, commencing a full and proper consultation with colleagues in May 2024. To ensure the proposals were fully understood by everyone, several collective consultation meetings were held with the opportunity for all employees to ask questions and feedback through their representatives, followed by hundreds of individual consultations and drop in sessions with all impacted employees. Translators were also provided, and documents were made available in all relevant languages.
This was a constructive and effective process that resulted in several changes being made to the original proposals following close engagement and dialogue with employee representatives. These included changes to the length of unpaid breaks, extending the time frame for the consultation process and removing changes to night-shift patterns that were included in the original proposals.
The consultation process has now concluded, and these changes are now being introduced. Currently 97% of colleagues working at Wrexham have accepted the new terms and conditions.
The changes that have been made are necessary to ensure that Oscar Mayer can continue to be a long-term sustainable business and protect local community jobs. They also put us in line with other businesses in our sector and similar companies in the local area.
Throughout this process, Unite has repeatedly sought to intimidate members of our team, and this has unacceptably extended to family members with no connection to our business.
Unite has also made false claims. For example, Unite claims that colleagues will face reductions of £3,000 per year, which is inaccurate. The reality is that these changes will result in around a £20 per week reduction for affected colleagues.
Unite also claims that Oscar Mayer has illegally used agency staff to cover striking workers during the strike. This is entirely untrue and the business has complied with all its legal obligations.
Unite walked away from discussions about union recognition in August and has since made no attempt to reengage meaningfully and responsibly.
Oscar Mayer is committed to protecting employment, ensuring the ongoing viability of production in Wrexham and delivering the very best products and service to its customers.
The company remains open to dialogue with Unite through the appropriate channels and continues to engage with stakeholders in a constructive effort to resolve the dispute.