Drivers' jobs at risk
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• More than 100 drivers' jobs are threatened by a shake-up in supermarket giant Sainsbury's distribution network in the West Midlands. The Transport & General Workers' Union fears employees at Sainsbury's Shire Park depot in Worcester could be made redundant when it is replaced by a regional distribution centre at Hams Hall, Warks.
T&G regional industrial organiser Bob Shaw says: "Hams Hall will be a very large, automated depot that will be supplied by feeder depots. At the moment Shire Park does not appear to be part of that equation. We are fighting for it to be retained and if that can't be done for economic reasons we want the drivers redeployed."
He adds that about 25 drivers from the neighbouring Droitwich depot, which is due to close next year, took voluntary redundancy after some of its work was transferred to Shire Park in April. Drivers and warehouse staff at both depots are employed by Sainsbury's contractor Christian Salvesen, which will only say the shake-up is a sensitive issue, A Sainsbury's spokesman confirms that Shire Park will not be needed once Hams Hall opens in about two years. "It is too early to say what will happen to all the drivers," he says. "There could be the possibility of them transferring to Hams Hall."