BASILDON Argos workers joined more than a thousand others across the country in a two-week strike in a row over their jobs.

A total of 15 warehouse workers took to the picket line in Pipps Hill on Wednesday, with many others striking at home.

It is believed about 1,400 warehouse staff from the high street giant downed tools across south Essex, Bridgewater, Burton-on-Trent, Heywood and Lutterworth over job security and contracts.

Speaking from the picket line, a Unite union representative, who asked not to be named, said: “We are feeling the squeeze with pressure increasing more and more.

“This is a trade dispute with the company, it is not personal with managers.”

Another member of staff, who asked not to be named, said: “We have to make this stand to show that we are not happy with the current conditions.

“We’ve voiced our disapproval verbally, but that hasn’t worked so this is a last resort.

“Strikes are always a last resort.”

A spokesman for Unite said the workers, who prepare deliveries for Argos stores, believe that a culture of contracting-out work will lead to job losses and a deterioration in their terms and conditions.

A last-minute bid by Argos to stop the strike was rejected by a high court judge on Tuesday.

Unite national officer Matt Draper said the union is “deeply disappointed with Argos’s aggressive stance.

He explained: “Unite had hoped that we could have reached a negotiated settlement when we attended talks at the conciliation service Acas the other week. Instead Argos has sought to use the law to ride roughshod over its workers’ concerns and refused to engage positively.

“Our members have legitimate concerns about being transferred to another company or being offered alternative employment on potentially inferior terms, if they are unwilling to travel to a new site.

“They are fearful that a contracting out culture will take hold and have asked for guarantees about terms and conditions going forward.

“The silence from the company is doing nothing to allay those fears and points to a cost cutting agenda. Unite urges Argos to start engaging constructively and offer the guarantees its directly employed warehouse workers are seeking.”

An Argos spokesman said, “We strongly believe this dispute to be wholly unnecessary as the union has made a series of demands in the full knowledge that they cannot be met, for legal reasons. We can reassure customers that we have strong contingencies in place.”