Workers at Unilever have taken their protest against proposals to scrap final salary pension scheme to the company's annual meeting in London.

Delegations of Usdaw members from Unilever sites in Leeds and Port Sunlight lobbied shareholders as they arrived for the meeting, handing out postcards and waving placards demanding the company "keep their pensions promise."

Unilever closed the final salary pension scheme to new members in 2008, promising the 5,000 existing members that this would make the scheme safe for the future.

Unilever announced last month that they now intend to close the existing scheme altogether.

Dave Randles, Usdaw Convenor at Port Sunlight, said: "Our members think Unilever is using the current economic climate as an excuse to scrap one of the most important and fundamental benefits offered to them when they first joined the company.

"We want the company to think again as they are threatening the security and peace of mind our members and their families thought they would have when reaching retirement age."

Usdaw National Officer David Johnson said: "Our members have sent a clear message to Unilever that they should think again and honour the pensions promise they made to staff in 2008."

Unilever plans to replace the pension with a two-part scheme of career average earnings and an investing plan from January next year.

In April, the firm said it was ending the exisiting scheme after it became “increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable”.