WORKERS in West Yorkshire making refrigerators and freezers used by leading supermarket chains are to strike over pay.

Around 70 members of Unite at Bradford-based manufacturing firm EPTA, whose customers include Tesco, Aldi, Morrisons and the Co-op, have voted to withdraw their labour after rejecting a 4 per cent pay increase.

The union said the differential between the workers’ pay and the minimum wage had been “steadily whittled away over recent years.”

Unite warned that the strike would cause “severe disruption” to customers, though regional officer Neil Whitaker insisted that the dispute was “entirely of the company’s own making.”

“It has had every chance to make a fair offer that recognises the skills of our members but has failed to do so,” he said.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “EPTA should be ashamed of the manner it is treating its loyal workforce.”

The workers will strike on October 15, 17, 21, 23, 29 and 31.