A richly-deserved crappy Christmas is heading the way of one Dave Whelan, owner of Wigan Athletic and executive director of the JJB Sports chain.

Staff at the JJB Sports distribution depot in Wigan have voted to strike for three days between Christmas and New Year, in protest against the sacking of GMB steward Chris Riley. Riley played an instrumental role in organising strike action in November this year - a strike which led to union members at the depot winning their fight for a pay increase (workers like Riley were only getting £180 in the hand a week at that point). As soon as the new pay deal was sorted, Riley - an effective and popular union organiser - was duly sacked from the organisation on the usual trumped-up gross misconduct charge.

It was all terribly predictable, Riley says. 'The department manager investigated me for gross misconduct for a remark I made to a non-union member. We had the appeal hearing on Wednesday [13 December] and management's decision was upheld, which wasn't exactly a surprise.'

What did he say to the non-union member? 'Well, yeah, okay, I did say something to him, but it was just taken completely out of proportion. Everyone knows [the sacking] was because I'm a steward.' Things had been pretty heated at the JJB Sport depot for a while anyway, what with the unrest on the shop floor, the strike action and the fight to get as many people as possible to take part in it. Many things were said, but not everybody was sacked for saying them. 'This other union member told this guy that he was going to hit him with a bat.'

And anyway, Riley says, part of the back-to-work agreement with management was that all grievances against people like himself would be dropped (Riley was suspended from work pending the investigation for gross misconduct at about the time that the November strikes were being organised). '(JJB Sports Chief Executive) Tom Knight gave me a personal assurance that the grievances would be dropped.'

The fact that the grievance against Riley was not dropped, but rammed home with feeling, may yet be Mr Whelan's undoing. The depot's 270 or so fired-up uion members have just balloted in favour of strike action on 27, 28 and 29 December to protest against JJB Sport's treatment of Riley and demand union recognition and rights - a strike that is very likely to affect post-Christmas sales at JJB Sports. The anti-sweatshop campaigning group No Sweat has been organising protests outside JJB Sports stores across the country.

Riley believes the committment to further strike action says a great deal for the feeling about Whelan among union members. The other members, after all, got their improved pay and conditions after the last round of strikes. They weren't sacked. They didn't have to vote strike again, just to help Riley. They're prepared to do it though, says Riley, because they know now how effective a united action can be. 'The members understand what kind of guy this [Whelan] is,' Riley says. 'He says all this... about being a man of working people, but he's not.'

Riley will take a complaint about his victimisation as a trade union steward to industrial tribunal, and is putting his case together now. In the meantime, he will continue to turn out at the protests and leafletting sessions at JJB Sports stores, and help co-ordinate demonstrations.

The protestors will be on the case of Wigan Athletic as well. Wigan's got games coming up against Chelsea, Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers - the team that none other than Dirty Dave Whelan played for way back when, before he buggered his leg. The protestors will be handing out red cards - it's time to send JJB Sports off, Riley says.

And does Riley think it's been worth it? Yes, Riley says. It's been hard, but 'the support that's coming from outside is fabulous.' He says people keep telling him helpful tales, too. 'Someone was telling me that they heard this girl who was working in a bar when she had finished for the night. She said 'I've done 70 hours this week, and what have I got? Then she said 'we need a union like they've got at JJB.''

And the future? 'I'm really interested in union work,' Riley says.