Strike on pay deal at bakery

Up to 140 workers at a Walsall bakery plan to walk out on a two-day strike next week in a row over pay, the Express & Star can reveal.

The Bakers Food and Allied Workers' Union was today giving Maple Leaf bosses seven-days notice of the planned industrial action.

In a ballot, 108 employees from the Raleigh Road site in Birchills, which employs more than 200, voted in favour of strike action while seven voted against.

But union rep John Higgins said the actual number of those to walk-out would be higher as some had been on holiday when the ballot was held.

The first strike is expected to be Thursday and Friday next week with a picket line outside the bakery, which makes Harvestime sliced bread, chapatis and other products. Employees are refusing to sign new contracts which reduce pay, holiday and overtime bonuses, according to the union.

Spokesman for Maple Leaf Bob Archer said: "We have a meeting with the union this afternoon, we cannot comment further than that."