STAFF at a cake manufacturing company have signed a petition against a deal between company bosses and a union.

Some staff are angry after company bosses at Elis-abeth the Chef, which owns Broadheath Chilled Foods in Martley Road, Lower Broadheath, near Worces-ter, signed an exclusive deal with the union GMB in March. Some staff have claimed the deal was done without consulting them first.

The petition, which contains 232 signatures, has been signed by those who say Unite is their union of choice, not GMB.

As previously reported in your Worcester News, several staff sent letters to the works committee expressing their anger. A member of staff, who did not want to be named, said: “This petition has been submitted to the company to demonstrate that Unite is our union of choice and the union we believe should represent us and be granted recognition and not the GMB, which is the company’s imposed union.”

Workers held a protest outside the factory in Lower Broadheath on Wednesday, April 21, against the deal with GMB. There are about 600 workers at the Lower Broadheath site and 1,400 people in total across production facilities in Sout-ham, near Leamington Spa.

Bosses at Elisabeth the Chef, a leading supplier of cakes and desserts, were unavailable for comment as two of their senior managers were overseas, one in China and one in France.

Speaking to your Worces-ter News at the end of last month, Michael Rigby, representing Elisabeth the Chef, said: “The company wishes to make it very clear that it is not preventing any employee from belonging to any trade union of their choice.”

GMB organiser David Day has said the agreement was the result of a decade of hard work by GMB and Elisabeth the Chef.

He said: “The GMB completely respects the right of any individual to be a member of a trade union of their choice and fully understands that people might want to join another trade union, though we would always hope they would join the GMB.”

Margaret Armstrong, sen-ior organiser at Unite, said: “It came as a complete and utter surprise to the workers that there had been any discussion with another union about recognition and what to do next.

“Recognition isn’t the be all and end all and if people are members of Unite the Union they will continue to have our support.

“I wouldn’t want any of our members to be overly concerned they are not going to get representation by their union.

“Why not ask the workers what their choice is? They have not done that. I don’t have any issue with a sister trade union – it’s the actions of the employer people are upset about. Workers should have a voice in their place of work. It should be a voice of their choice.”

She did not reveal the membership of Unite among the Elisabeth the Chef workers but said that it was “more than substantial and more than GMB”.