Lockwood Haulage has been threatened with strike action next week by staff after their union claimed it had been offered a “miserly” pay offer.
Unite members at the haulier’s Knottingley and South Kirby, West Yorkshire depots said they would walk out in a dispute over a 1% pay increase, which the union said was being applied to all grades and allowances and backdated to 1 March 2025.
Unite claimed strike action would have impact Lockwood’s customer Ardagh Glass and the household names it supplied, which included Coca Cola, Budweiser, Stella and Heineken, leading to a shortage of supplies of these products.
It also produces whiskey bottles for Jameson, J&B and Johnnie Walker as well as wine bottles.
Unite said Lockwood wanted to introduce an attendance-based bonus scheme, rather than pay increases.
It claimed this would be £250 each quarter if they met the attendance criteria, which workers believed would leave them financially worse off.
The workers were previously employed by GXO before being transferred in March 2025 in a TUPE agreement and Unite said they had not received pay rise since October 2023.
Unite also said it had attended “multiple meetings” in order to resolve the dispute, but that Lockwood had failed to fix the issue.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The fact that workers have not had a pay rise in nearly three years is an absolute insult and to be now offered a measly 1% is a further kick in the teeth.
“Moving away from yearly increases to a bonus scheme is simply another way to shortchange our members at Lockwood. Unite will not allow this unacceptable attack on pay and our members have our full support in their industrial action.”
The Unite members are forklift truck drivers and machine operators in its glass division.
Lockwood Haulage was approached for comment.
