263 TEA JOBS SET FOR AXE; TWININGS PRODUCTION TO MOVE ABROAD.Byline: AMY A`my´ n. 1. A friend. HUNT HUNDREDS of jobs look set to leave Tyneside for Poland and China. Tea-maker Twinings, which employs 263 staff in North Shields Coordinates: North Shields (or locally just Shields) is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne, in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in North East England. It is located eight miles (13 km) east of Newcastle upon Tyne. , plans to move business to Eastern Europe Eastern Europe The countries of eastern Europe, especially those that were allied with the USSR in the Warsaw Pact, which was established in 1955 and dissolved in 1991. and South East Asia East Asia A region of Asia coextensive with the Far East. East Asian adj. & n. . All the workers on Tyneside, who repackage re·pack·age tr.v. re·pack·aged, re·pack·ag·ing, re·pack·ag·es To package again or anew, especially in a more attractive package. re·pack tea for sale abroad, have been told their jobs are at risk. They were called to a meeting yesterday in Gosforth to be told that Twinings could potentially close the entire site by September 2011, with just a handful of jobs kept at a factory in Andover, Hampshire. The firm, which has manufactured tea for over 300 years, is expecting its markets in those parts of the world to grow and says it does not make economic sense to import tea many thousands of miles. But union bosses say the North Shields factory is "very productive" and have accused company management of putting profits before employees' livelihoods. Usdaw union representative Jayne Shotton said the company was opening a new factory in Poland which would take jobs from Tyneside. Ms Shotton said: "Our jobs are going to Poland and China - that's what we know. "It is extremely disappointing that a company which proudly calls itself Twinings of London is now moving work to Poland. "We will be taking steps to try and fight this, because this is a very productive workforce that does not deserve to be pushed aside." North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear in the North East of England. Its seat is at the Town Hall, Wallsend. Created in 1974, the borough lies within the historic county boundaries of Northumberland. MP Stephen Byers Stephen John Byers (born April 13, 1953) is a British politician. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Tyneside North and is a former cabinet minister. Early career Stephen Byers was born in Wolverhampton. has lent his support to early efforts to prevent the job losses. He said: "The proposed closure of this plant must be resisted. We simply cannot afford to lose this number of jobs. "I have already spoken to the trade unions representing the workers at the factory and we shall jointly be seeking an urgent meeting with the company to try and get them to change their minds." Twinings has said one third of its UK production will move abroad, with the remaining work based at the Andover site. The factory's closer location to southern ports mean it was favoured over the North Shields site. Head of manufacturing Peter Willetts said: "We understand that this announcement will come as a shock for our employees at North Shields who could not have done more for our business. "This is a very difficult but necessary step which will allow Twinings to remain competitive in our markets worldwide and take full advantage of future growth opportunities. "Whilst we have had some overseas manufacturing for decades, the majority of our tea is imported and packaged here in the UK prior to being re-exported - and this is not efficient. "As two-thirds of our sales are overseas, we need to locate our manufacturing operations in cost effective locations, closer to markets. "If the proposal is to go ahead every effort will be made to support North Shields employees including a retraining re·train tr. & intr.v. re·trained, re·train·ing, re·trains To train or undergo training again. re·train programme, outplacement out·place·ment n. The process of facilitating a terminated employee's search for a new job by provision of professional services, such as counseling, paid for by the former employer. support, opportunities for other roles within the group, and enhanced redundancy packages." The company insisted its UK tea sales would still be based on tea packaged in Andover. CAPTION(S): HISTORIC: Twinings has been making tea since 1706 
I am a fourth generation Twinings tea drinker. I have only ever bought Twinings. However, for them to close the North Shields factory and move to Poland where the workers are ten a penny, have no proper health and safewty/ union protection, cheaper costs and are throwing financial incentives to businesses to open there instead of the UK, I am NOT going to buy Twinings tea again. It is absolutely scandalous and follows the trend of Burberry's and others doing this. A British company should protect and support British jobs.
There should be a bpoycott of Twinings to tell them their behaviour is scandalous and offensive. |
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