Union officials in crunch talks over Minsterley Uniq dairy jobs

Union officials were today due to hold crunch talks with bosses at the Uniq dairy over its plans to axe 350 jobs.

The loss of jobs at the Minsterley dairy has been branded a "devastating blow" to the local economy by Unite, the largest union in the country. Mike Tuff, regional officer for Unite, said he was due to meet with union representatives before speaking to Uniq's HR manager today.

The 350 job losses, due to take effect next June, come on top of 50 redundancies already announced for next March.

Mr Tuff said: "We are going to ask about the 400 redundancies and what the reasons are for it.

"We have all manner of questions. There are lots of parents and lots of husbands and wives who work there so it's a major blow to the economy and the individuals because there are just no other jobs around."

"We will be asking questions like is there anything we can do to assist to help in any way? Is there a way we can change processes or anything we can do to resolve the issue?"

The union said it was concerned that the cuts could be linked to the takeover of Uniq by the giant Irish convenience food company Greencore.

Uniq says it is closing production of its loss-making Everyday Desserts line at Minsterley.

Attempts to turn around the fortunes of the line, which makes dairy puddings and trifles, have failed.

The company's premium range of desserts is to be moved from Minsterley to Somerset. But some desserts will continue to be made at Minsterley, with staff scaled down to around 100 people.

Meanwhile, Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski said he has arranged a meeting on September 2 at 2pm with the company at his constituency office in Harlescott Lane.

Steve Hill, Paul Tirebuck and Sarah Oakes, from Uniq will be attending the meeting and Mr Kawczynski has also asked Councillor Tudor Bebb, Shropshire Council ward member for Rea Valley, to attend.

By Russell Roberts