The Austrian-owned company's 149 staff took action last week over the terms offered to staff facing redundancy and what they claim is an unfair method of selection.

On Friday and Saturday (10-11 February), employees went on strike and held a demonstration on site, while further industrial action took place from 13-15 February.

Action continues tomorrow (17 February) when employees will walk out for 24 hours, while a picket line will also be in place from 12-6pm Saturday. Further stoppages are planned between 21-27 February.

Unite national officer Ian Tonks said: "We are really disappointed with how MMP management chose to handle the situation. All workers are asking for is fair treatment over redundancy."

Regional officer Phil Morgan added: "This is not an action our members wanted to take, but they felt they had no alternative. The redundancy terms on the table are significantly inferior to terms negotiated on previous occasions and the selection criteria adopted by the company is highly subjective and open to manipulation.

"The only way this dispute will be resolved is for the company to reconsider its position and return to talks."

According to the union, MMP plans to make 49 people redundant following a reduction in orders. Unite agreed significant changes to terms and conditions to reduce the number of redundancies to 37, but discussions broke down with the company over the selection criteria and redundancy terms.

MMP was not available for comment at this time.