Around a thousand workers from Morrisons are on strike today after the supermarket chain forced changes to pension contributions which could leave employees up to £500 worse off per year.
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00:00 A Morrison's lorry has just beeped at staff members on strike today.
00:04 Yes, over a thousand Morrison warehouse workers are on strike after it was revealed that bosses
00:12 were going to reduce their pension pay packets by 500 pounds a year. We're going to be talking
00:18 to some of the people on strike today which will no doubt impact over 500 stores nationwide.
00:26 What's the feeling here today? Very strong. Keep up our pensions.
00:31 And why are you going on strike? Because they're only having our pensions because we're hourly
00:38 paid. All salaried staff and above get more in the pensions than we do. And how does that make
00:45 people feel? What's it like for morale? It's the lowest in morale I've known in 20 odd years.
00:51 And how long have some of these people worked for Morrison? 35 years.
00:56 And what would you like to see happen? Just put the pensions back to where they were before.
01:05 There's no need for government legislation. Given their own admittance, it won't be till 2030 at
01:12 the earliest. So put them back then. We're not asking for any more. Just put our pensions back
01:17 to where they were. What kind of roles do some of the warehouse workers do for Morrison?
01:23 So the people on strike today are from the ambient warehouse, fresh warehouse and the
01:29 freezer warehouse. The tasks are picking, loading, transporting, FLP drivers, QC checkers,
01:39 admin, canteen, stock control. So could some of these people be in a position that in retirement
01:46 they may struggle to actually shop? Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. Because at the end of the
01:53 day, you know, the pension is what you work all your life for and you want to have money to be
02:00 able to survive when you're retired. And how did it make you feel when you heard the news?
02:07 The morale went really down. The morale went really down. And to be fair, it's not just
02:14 pension. There is other stuff that we sort of not agree with, you know, the colleague award,
02:21 job role stuff that's been going on for the last nearly two years. So basically all over,
02:30 if I would summarise that, the morals are bad, are really bad. People are frustrated. People are
02:36 angry. We've got colleagues that are working 15, 20, 25 years. So the experienced colleagues that
02:45 have been working for the company most of their lives. And I can smell bacon butties as well as
02:52 lots of people beeping in support as they go past. What is the feeling here today? The support is
02:59 brilliant. The support is absolutely amazing. And I would like to thank everybody for that.
03:04 You can feel the atmosphere and yeah, it's been great. What do you say to Morrison's?
03:11 Morrison workers are said to be on strike until Sunday 5am, with more on the way in the summer
03:31 if things do not change. Sophie Malan-Malin reporting from the Morrison's headquarters in
03:37 Wakefield.
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