Asda workers are angry about a range of issues including claims of an increasingly bullying management culture. Credit: Nigel J. Harris via Shutterstock.com.

Workers at supermarket chain Asda’s Wisbech, Cambridgeshire store have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action following a recent ballot. 

With an 87% turnout, more than 97% of those voting – 170 workers in all – supported industrial action. 

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The decision comes amid grievances over reduced working hours and an increase in what workers describe as a “bullying” management culture. 

The ballot was also a response to dissatisfaction with the level of training and support for job roles, the protracted nature of an equal pay claim and the alleged neglect of health, safety and fire safety issues.  

The Wisbech store is set to become the second Asda location to experience a strike, following similar action by more than one hundred GMB [the official abbreviation of the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union] members at the Gosport store in February 2024. 

Strike dates for the Wisbech store will be announced in early March. 

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GMB regional organiser Keith Dixon said: “Asda Wisbech workers will now go on strike – just the second time this has happened in an Asda store – after this historic vote.  

“They’re understandably angry about slashed hours, a non-existent training programme, bullying management, a lack of understanding of health and safety and fire safety and almost no negotiation with the GMB.  

“These problems stem from the top. Money is being stripped out of the business and workers in stores are feeling the pain. Asda workers in Wisbech aren’t going to take it anymore.” 

Asda’s Lowestoft store in the UK is also on the brink of industrial action as a consultative ballot has indicated that almost 90% of GMB union members are ready to vote for a strike.