CONFLICT is brewing at the Cockermouth James Walker and Co site as workers turned down the company’s final pay rise offer.

The Unite union for the Gote Road site voted 92.3 per cent against taking a final offer of 2.25 per cent and it is believed industrial action could be on the way.

A member of staff who did not want to be named said that issues in the factory go beyond the pay: “It’s the current management, there’s no structure. The management work what they want and it’s basically upset the shop floor.

“We didn’t take a pay rise last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

James Walker and Co is an international manufacturing group involved in fluid sealing technology.

Since the Cockermouth site’s inception in 1969 it has become a major player in the company and has been subject to a £3 million investment in the past five years.

The factory is one of the county’s largest employers and was earmarked for a move to Lillyhall in 2017 following the impact of flooding to the site in 2009 and 2015.

However, rather than relocate to Workington, bosses decided to invest in greater flood defences for the Cockermouth site a year later.

A £2.6 million investment from the Local Growth Fund was awarded to the site for flood protections.

The source said: “The biggest thing this year, at the time when we voted not to take a pay rise, last year the company directors were taking bonuses in excess of £30,000 a week.”

They said that morale is at an all time low and the family business feel of the factory has gone.
“They’ve just been driving wages down for quite a considerable amount of time. We just want what we think workers are entitled to.

“2.25 is what they offered this year which equated to 238,000 for the whole site for the year. They make 260,000 between seven of them.
The source said that the current workforce are “not bothered about coming to work it was a family feel when I started.”

They said: “About 60 to 70 per cent of that vote probably wasn’t about the pay it was about the management and the way the place is run. A lot of people have had enough now.”

Ed Surman, site director for James Walker and Co Limited, said in a statement: “James Walker & Co are currently in on-going negotiations with the union Unite regarding a 2021 pay award for the employees at the Cockermouth site. 

“The negotiation process is not yet complete and we welcome constructive dialogue with Unite at our next meeting which is scheduled to take place later this month.”