At 2340 on Wednesday September 29th about 25 people from the North West blockaded Sainsbury’s Haydock distribution centre in Merseyside.
A circle of six people locked to each other with arm tubes in front of the main gate. Meanwhile others stopped lorries, talked to drivers and locked the second gate (emergency gate) with a decent bike lock.

Each hour a depot is shut is said to set back Sainsbury’s by three hours and cost them £100 000 to £150 000.

This is not the first time the depot has been blockaded;
Back in July, Sainsbury’s distribution centres around the UK were simultaneously blockaded.  https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/294268.html
Last December workers at the depot were on strike over pay and conditions (see below)
Farmers groups have also blockaded the depot with tractors and farm vehicles in the past.

Just after 0300, a mobile CCTV van arrived at the emergency gate with eight coppers, and a car with two more cops. They got rid of the lock in no time and lorries began leaving through the emergency gate.
This gate has never been used to get lorries out and in when the depot has been blockaded in the past. It looks like Sainsbury’s were hit hard by the last blockade and have had to make contingency plans for a repeat scenario.

The vast majority of Sainsbury’s lorry drivers were supportive – they are pissed off with Sainsbury’s because of how they treat their workers and most were anti-GM too.

Noone was arrested and all the blockaders and their equipment got home safely, happy in the knowledge that the blockade had cost the supermarket chain £350 00 - £500 000.

More general info here:  http://www.geneticsaction.org.uk/

Info on strike by workers at Haydock;
Socialist W***er report  http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/print_article.php4?article_id=626
BBC Report  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/merseyside/3244930.stm

Indymedia report of Nationally coordinated blockades  https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/294268.html

Initial post on Indymedia about this blockade plus comments
 https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/298414.html

Mainstream press coverage of this blockade  http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3563931