A strike over pay at coffin makers in Glasgow is to continue as workers say the company has failed to make an improved offer.

Unite members at the Cooperative Funeralcare factory in Govan said the strike will go on after Christmas unless an acceptable offer is made.

The workers will strike from today until Friday in a week-long stoppage.

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The union says the Co-op has spent cash buying coffins from outside suppliers, instead of using the money to offer a pay rise.

Unite claim Co-op has spent £1m on third-party suppliers to meet demand during the strike.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “Coop management said they had more than enough coffins to get them through this dispute. Well, first it turned out they didn’t have enough and have sought to buy coffins from a third-party supplier at huge cost.

“Second, they didn’t take account of the resilience of the workers. Management are clearly trying to break their own loyal workforce. “

Willie Thomson, regional officer at Unite said: “The Co-operative values of a different, fairer and better way of doing business have been replaced with a Scrooge-like attitude to the current cost of living crisis our members face. 

“Management would rather fork out cash to other coffin suppliers in the hope of breaking our members’ resolve than to put a fraction of that money towards solving this dispute.”

Previously the Co-operative Funeralcare said the strike had no impact on its ability to support bereaved families and it had a supply of coffins.

A spokesperson for Co-op, said: “We are disappointed to be facing further strike action relating to pay from colleagues in our coffin factory, particularly given our recent pay offer, which represented a significant increase for colleagues. We were disappointed that Unite chose not to even ballot their members on this offer.

“As a major national employer of almost 60,000 colleagues that is facing into high inflation and increased costs, we have worked hard to balance the requests from our 59 employees at the coffin factory with our wider colleague population.

“The colleagues at our coffin factory are highly valued. They have received annual pay increases, and production bonuses.

“Furthermore, this offer has been made at a time where we have had to make some tough decisions in terms of reducing roles across our business.  We would encourage our coffin factory colleagues to give our proposals their full consideration and for Unite to ballot their members upon the offer that remains on the table.”