Unilever hit by its first-ever British strike, PG Tips tea group affected

Union members voted overwhelmingly for industrial action last month to prompt the rare walkout over pensions at a UK blue-chip company after Unilever declined to continue talks over the pension change in an eight-month long dispute.

Union officials said members were taking one-day strike action across all of Unilever's 12 plants including its big detergents plant at Port Sunlight, its ice cream factory in Gloucester and margarine facility at Purfleet.

The Anglo-Dutch group, which employs around 7,000 workers at its plants in Britain, is looking to move all 5,000 members' promised final salary pensions to a less generous career average scheme by July 2012. The company abandoned final salary pensions for new joiners in 2008 and 2,000 workers are on the new scheme.

Three of Britain's biggest unions — Unite, GMB and USDAW — have around 2,350 members working at Unilever and say the company has not held talks over the dispute since October.

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