Staff who face losing their job at Twining’s the tea makers have had to face a second hard hit as they have been asked to train the polish workers, who are replacing them as cheaper alternative labour.
Last November Twining made an announcement that the company they were going to close their production plant based in North shields and move production to Poland resulting in a loss of 263 jobs in the area.
One worker, who did not want to be named, told the Daily Mail: “They are taking our jobs yet we have to train them. There’s a lot of animosity here towards them, people are very angry.”
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Twinning’s have now decided to bring the new polish recruits to Tyneside to start training which will commence next week.
Usdaw union representative Jayne Shotton said: ‘The workers at Twinings had resigned themselves to the fact their jobs were going to Poland.
‘But I think to bring Polish workers over here and expect them to be trained by Twinings
workers who are losing their jobs is like rubbing their noses in it.
‘Twinings have never consulted with us on this and I will certainly be talking to them about it.
A spokesman for Twinings said there would be two waves of employees from Poland visiting for three weeks at a time. She said: ‘Next week Twinings will be welcoming a handful of new employees from Poland to the North Shields site. They will be visiting to familiarise themselves with the tea-making process and receive training.
‘While we recognise that this has been a very difficult time for our employees at North Shields and appreciate that some people would prefer not to participate, many employees are willing to help carry out this training.’
