Last time I buy Twinings

[Gob]

Fury has erupted after it emerged staff who will lose their jobs at a tea firm will have to train the foreign workers who will take their place.

Twinings bosses announced in November they would be closing its North Shields factory with the loss of 263 jobs.

Company bosses said all production would be transferred to Poland or China by September 2011 as part of an efficiency drive.

Now staff at the plant have been told Polish workers will travel to Tyneside to be trained by them.


One appalled worker said it was, 'Rubbing salt in the wound' after being told they were losing their jobs.

After the plant closure was announced 22 MPs signed a Commons motion condemning the move. But the campaign was not successful.

Meanwhile almost 4,000 people have joined a Facebook group to save the North Shields plant.

According to North Shields workers, Twinings said at the time that it would offer volunteers the chance to extend their contract with the company by up to six months by going over to Poland to help with training.

But now it has also decided to bring staff to Tyneside to be trained, starting next week. One worker, who did not want to be named, said:

'It’s rubbing salt in the wound because they are taking our jobs yet we have to train them. “There’s a lot of animosity here towards them, people are very angry.'

Usdaw union rep 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. Workers are extremely angry and I can fully understand their resentment.'

A spokeswoman for Twinings said there would be two waves of employees from Poland visiting North Shields 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.

'A significant number of our employees have also expressed interest in the opportunity to train Polish employees at the new site in Poland.

'We will be making further details available to staff about this initiative in the coming weeks.'

Twinings was founded in 1706 and claims to be one of the first companies to introduce tea drinking to the English.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0yhemMUZP

[Miles]

Yeah I would teach them but It would take at lease 10 years to certify them. Then I would burn down the union hall.

[loCAtek]

Back in 2001, (before 9/11) a place I was working at did this to its employees.

First the company was bought by a corporation in Texas. Then that corporation tried to layoff its US workers, and move the manufacturing to Mexico. Their bright idea was that the US workers could train the Mexicans to WELD to precision standards; forgetting the fact that it takes months to years to get to being a decent welder.

Not surprisingly, this business tanked shortly after. Ha!

[Gob]

I just wish there was more organised consumer activism on things like this, I for one certainly won't buy Twinings tea again.. I was keen to buy a Triumph motorbike, till I heard they had moved production of them to the Philippines.

[rubato]

Putting tea in little bags and stapling them shut is such good work? It takes 'training' to do that?

Give me a break.

Get over it. A small number of very low-value jobs are being transferred to a different place.



yrs,
rubato

[tyro]

Actually, the British tend to shun bagged tea. As I understand it, the invention made use of the stuff that had gone so far to powder that there was no reasonable way it could be sold loose. Fortunately, North Americans don’t see the difference.

But manufacturers will look for ways to maximize the value of their inventory.

On the other hand, wouldn’t it have made sense all along to do whatever tea companies do, in a place close to where it is grown?

[Jarlaxle]

How many of the new employees will be trained to do their jobs WRONG, I wonder?

[dales]

Putting tea in little bags and stapling them shut is such good work? It takes 'training' to do that?

Give me a break.

Get over it. A small number of very low-value jobs are being transferred to a different place.



yrs,
rubato

That so?

Low value to whom?

You?

Thought so.

[Gob]

How many of the new employees will be trained to do their jobs WRONG, I wonder?

Now that's a sweet idea, what do they have to lose?

[Guinevere]

Tuhere are so many excellent tea manufacturers these days they won't be missed (although I love me my Prince of Wales tea and don't know another manufacturer).

[Big RR]

How many of the new employees will be trained to do their jobs WRONG, I wonder?

Now that's a sweet idea, what do they have to lose?

That's what i'd do, train them, but leave a few essential steps out. When companies treat employees this way, nothign wrong with getting a little job security on their own.

Get over it. A small number of very low-value jobs are being transferred to a different place.

Sure, let them eat cake; right Marie?

[Gob]

Tuhere are so many excellent tea manufacturers these days they won't be missed (although I love me my Prince of Wales tea and don't know another manufacturer).

I you get the chance try Dilmah Tea Guin, it's a single origin Sri Lankan tea, a very popular (virtually the national) tea in Australia. Nothing extraordinary, just a good well balanced black tea. I drink gallons of the stuff!

If you cannot access it there, let me know and I'll stick some in the post to you.

[loCAtek]

Is this what's been going up your nose so much lately? J/k Ha!

[oldr_n_wsr]

How many of the new employees will be trained to do their jobs WRONG, I wonder?

The language barriar alone might insure that.

[The Hen]

I need to correct you Gob.

Dilmah is popular, but our national tea is Bushell's

[BoSoxGal]

I used to love Twining's, loose, in the little tin. Irish Breakfast was my favorite.

I'm grateful to have a job that cannot be outsourced.

[rubato]

Actually, the British tend to shun bagged tea. ... "

Sure they do. All 12.5% of them. :

http://www.britannia.com/BritHeritage/dartmoor.html
"...
Tea bags dominate the home market, accounting for 87.5% of all the tea brewed in Britain and in an attempt to stir the market afresh Brooke Bond has spent four years researching a pyramid-shaped tea bag, claimed to be the first major innovation since the launch of the square bag in 1951.
... "

yrs,
rubato

[Sean]

That's a very old article Rubato. According to the good people at the UK Tea Council it's more like 96% these days...

http://www.tea.co.uk/tea-glossary-and-faqs

[rubato]

I occasionally drink green tea, usually one of the Japanese styles like Genmai Cha but some of my Chinese colleagues have brought back some for me with indecipherable names. I think they have some kind of flowers in them. Very aromatic.

Earl Grey, English Breakfast et al are horrid, might as well drink boiled moss and tree roots.



yrs,
rubato