Three people have been arrested at a strike at a Hovis bakery.
According to Wigan Today, police intervened at the strike at the Wigan Hovis bakery at 2am on Monday morning.
More than 80 protesters were reported as being on the site of the Premier Foods bakery, with some blocking the road to prevent delivery lorries from leaving.
Two people were arrested for obstructing the highway, and another for a public order offence.
Speaking to Wigan Today, Mark Kenny, chief inspector at Greater Manchester Police, said: “This was a proportionate police response to quite a sizeable demonstration.
“A small number did commit offences so, as anyone would expect, we had to take direct action to ensure it passed off peacefully.”
Workers at the Hovis bread factory have gone on strike over the introduction of agency workers on zero-hour contracts.
Members of the Bakers and Food Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) will end their second week-long strike tomorrow at 6am. Another is planned to start from 28 September if the disagreement with Premier Foods over zero-hour contracts is not resolved.
A release by the BFAWU said that Premier Foods had informed them that “they have no intention of settling the dispute”. The statement said: “They are happy for the strikes to continue and stated that the dispute will not result in any review of their use of third-party zero-hour contracts.”
It added: “The BFAWU feels the company has deliberately provoked the dispute for its own purposes. However, it is obvious that they have been ill-prepared for the public backlash they are now receiving.”
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