The factory in Villers-Ecalles in Normandy, France produces up to 600,000 jars of the delicious hazelnut spread every year 25% of the world's entire production of Nutella.
160 employees of the Force Ouvrière (FO) union have been on strike since May 27, and no lorry has sone in or out of the site since then. Production of Kinder Bueno has been halted for almost a week, while only one of the four Nutella production lines is working and only at 20% capacity. The workers have called for a 4.5% pay rise and a €900 annual bonus. Bosses have offered them a 0.4% rise. Managers of Ferrero in France said in a statement: "The priority of the management of the factory is to protect those staff who are not striking and who are the majority and want to continue to work in good conditions.
160 employees of the Force Ouvrière (FO) union have been on strike since May 27, and no lorry has sone in or out of the site since then. Production of Kinder Bueno has been halted for almost a week, while only one of the four Nutella production lines is working and only at 20% capacity. The workers have called for a 4.5% pay rise and a €900 annual bonus. Bosses have offered them a 0.4% rise. Managers of Ferrero in France said in a statement: "The priority of the management of the factory is to protect those staff who are not striking and who are the majority and want to continue to work in good conditions.
"Ferrero has also claimed that the workers are just a small minority of the 400 staff at the factory. Workers who continue to block access to the factory could be subject to fines of up to €1,000 an hour, according to AFP news agency. In the statement, Ferrero confirmed that the fines were set to be implemented from Monday. Thankfully, the strike has not had a knock-on effect on Nutella stocks yet, but if it does, we're likely to go into a full-scale pancake related meltdown. Last year, the French government had to issue a plea to supermarkets not to cut prices of Nutella following riots over discounted sales of the popular spread. Videos of shoppers rioting over discounted jars of Nutella went viral when supermarket chain Intermarche reduced the price of a jar from €4.50 to €1.41.
