Unions have raised serious concerns about conditions for workers employed along supermarket supply chains in the UK. Pay and working conditions can be negatively affected as supermarkets squeeze suppliers for goods at lower prices or relocate in search of cheaper products. The major food retailers can exert undue pressure on suppliers causing job losses in food processing companies that simply cannot produce goods at the prices Tesco and their competitors wish to pay.

Unite "Look Behind the Meat Label" campaign
Unite has been campaigning in Supermarket supply chains such as the Red and White Meat Sectors since December 2007.  This began by publicising the harsh conditions many workers in the UK experience when employed by companies supplying meat to some of the major Supermarkets.  Unite then undertook a campaign against Tesco’s abuse of power over the Meat supply chains through the ‘Tesco: Every Workers Counts’ campaign.  Unite works towards its ultimate goal of ensuring the highest ethical standards in the treatment of customers and to insist upon the highest ethical standards for workers employed by companies throughout the supply chain. For more information visit Unite's supermarket facebook page.

Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) meat sector inquiry
In March 2010 the EHRC released its findings from its "Inquiry into recruitment and employment in the meat and poultry processing sector". The report reveals evidence of the widespread mistreatment and exploitation of migrant and agency workers in the sector, and makes recommendations including supermarkets improving their auditing of suppliers; processing firms and agencies improving recruitment practices, working environments and the ability of workers to raise issues of concern; and for the government to provide sufficient resources for the Gangmasters’ Licensing Agency to help safeguard the welfare and interests of workers.
 
The Commission will review action taken over the next 12 months by supermarkets, processing firms and recruitment agencies, and will consider taking enforcement action if necessary.

The Commission launched its first ever Inquiry into a key sector of the economy in October 2008, focusing on the UK's multi-billion pound meat industry for evidence of employment abuse and discrimination. Please see Unite's press release and the Statutory Notice and Terms of Reference for the inquiry.  The meat sector is a significant industry employing some 40,000 workers across Britain engaged in processing and packaging meat for sale in supermarkets and retailers. 

Unite (formally the Transport & General Workers Union) initiative among Tesco shop stewards - April 2006
According to the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G), the 'plough to plate' trade union with over 100,000 members in farming, food processing and distribution, Tesco's profits are in very stark contrast with the suppliers who have been squeezed. In 2006 the T&G announced it was forming a national co-ordinating committee to bring together its shop stewards across the Tesco empire. The initiative was the first step on the road to fighting for jobs and decent pay, terms and conditions in the country's top supermarket. Shop stewards report pressures to make efficiency savings as well as demands to give up hard won pay and working conditions in order to be admitted into the Tesco pension schemes. According to Ron Webb, T&G national secretary for transport, "Unbelievable though it may be, Tesco is actually looking to make job cuts on the day it claims to be the consumers' friend. We do not accept these cuts are either necessary or ethical. How can a multi-billion pound outfit attack the pay, terms and conditions of those people it relies on to get its goods to the stores?"  

Read a press release from the Transport and General Workers Union about a Tesco distribution centre worker sacked over comments in a newspaper

The GMB and Asda-Walmart - 2006
The GMB organises workers in food and drink manufacture, retail and distribution.

In 2006 Asda Wal-Mart was threatened with industrial action by GMB members employed in their 20 distribution depots across the UK. The GMB was seeking the establishment of proper national bargaining structures between the company and GMB covering pay, conditions and union facilities. Action was called off two days before it was planned to begin on 30 June 2006. For further information please see the BBC news coverage.

In February 2006 Asda WalMart was ordered to pay £850,000 for breaking new trade union laws by offering illegal inducements to workers to quit the GMB union. Some 340 drivers and warehouse men at a Washington, Durham, distribution depot were offered a 10% pay rise if they left the union.  

In Chard in March 2006 local GMB activists organised a demonstration outside Tesco when the company pulling a contract from a local employer resulted in 850 job losses in the South West, and 500 in Chard alone.

Very Little Helps is a website run by present Tesco employees and their families. It aims to enable employees to help each other with problems, share information and stories, and release work-related frustrations.