Demand a pay rise for catering workers at Drax Power Station

Unite members working in catering for BaxterStorey at Drax Power Station are taking strike action in their fight for a pay rise, and they need your support.

These workers, 95% of whom are women, are struggling to make ends meet. They are single mothers and grandmothers who are having to car share to save on fuel costs, work second jobs to pay their bills, and one member whose husband passed away in December has been unable to afford to pay for a funeral.

The total value of a 50p per hour increase for all workers in the catering team would be just £15,314– this is peanuts for a company like Drax Power Station.

The latest accounts for both companies show that Drax made £731 million in profits while BaxterStorey made £25 million in profits. Drax’s CEO Will Gardiner saw his pay package increase by £2.2 million to £5.4 million per year.

Despite burning money like it’s old-growth forest when it comes to pay for executives, Drax are refusing to negotiate on the hourly rate for the workers who feed their employees.

Instead, Drax have engaged in union-busting behaviour by banning the workers' Unite official from site, and preventing meetings from taking place between the workers and their union official.