STAFF at Unilever in the town centre were set to join colleagues from across the country in a protest outside the company headquarters in London today, Tuesday.

It comes as union members step up their campaign against the soap giant’s plans to close its final salary pension scheme.

Workers at the Bank Quay factory walked out in December over the proposals along with their colleagues in Norwich.

And now members of Unite, Usdaw and GMB are looking into further strike action at the 11 Unilever sites across the country after discussing the issue at a conference on Saturday in Liverpool.

Allan Black, GMB national officer, said: “The protest and the joint delegate conference will step up the pressure from the workforce for sensible negotiations with Unilever on pensions.

“Strike action at Unilever demonstrates that pensions are not just a matter of concern for public sector workers. The concerns are shared by workers at private sector employers like Unilever too. The action also shows that ordinary workers will not stand idly by to watch profitable employers like Unilever jumping on the pensions robbery bandwagon.”

A spokesman for Unilever said: “While we fully respect the right of our employees to protest about the changes we are planning to make to our UK pensions arrangements, we remain deeply concerned by the disproportionate action the trade unions are taking.

“This was a tough but necessary choice which reflects the realities of rising life expectancy and increased market volatility. We believe the provision of final salary pensions is a broken model which is no longer appropriate for Unilever.”