The two sides of Ingham Chicken riches: Battler poultry worker’s powerful speech about the cost of living goes viral… as uber-wealthy heirs to business fortune party in Europe

Powerful video shows a high-profile Ingham Chicken employee demanding the Australian poultry company improve wages and working conditions for factory workers – after three heirs to the empire’s fortune celebrated lavish weddings abroad.

Hundreds of workers at Ingham, which supplies chickens to supermarkets such as Aldi and Woolworths and fast food chains, were laid off for 24 hours in Western Australia and South Australia last week.

Factory workers are demanding a six percent wage increase and better working conditions to cope with rising costs of living. They have been threatening further rolling strikes all week until their demands are met.

In a viral TikTok clip posted by the United Workers Union, disgruntled employees claim the cost-of-living crisis has become too much for them.

“The cost of living has gone up so much, people’s mortgages and rent per week are about $500,” says one worker.

‘How can you live? Pay your bills, feed your children, take care of your family?

“Many workers here are immigrants who need to send money home to their families. We can’t afford it. We live from day to day.’

In the clip, Ingham employees can be seen slamming the company for its alleged strict treatment of employees.

“We are on time when we go to the toilet,” the employee claims. “We are pushed to the point where our bodies ache all day long, while we cannot provide for our families.”

Inghams has over 8,200 employees and distributes their products in supermarkets throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The strike comes weeks after Ingham siblings Katie, Tamie and Johnny – who have no day-to-day involvement with the company but are heirs to the company’s historic wealth – tied the knot in lavish weddings in Europe, all within a few weeks apart.

Johnny Ingham married socialite Rey Vakili in a beautiful wedding in Italy on June 30. The couple tied the knot in an outdoor garden ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Sicilian city of Taormina.

Just a few weeks earlier, Tamie Ingham shared her wedding to celebrity chef Guillaume Brahimi in Paris.

The heiress, 38, and the celebrity chef, 55, tied the knot at Musée Rodin before heading to Maxim’s de Paris for the reception.

Workers hold a picket line outside the Inghams Bolivar factory in Adelaide’s north

Sydney power duo Rey Vakili and Johnny Ingham officially tied the knot in June

Jessica Ingham (right) at Katie’s wedding in Tuscany

Tamie Ingham and Guillaume Brahimi surrounded by guests at a pre-wedding event in Paris

More recently, Katie Ingham – who founded Australian-made plant-based lubricant Tussle – celebrated her love for her long-term partner Rosenberg at a romantic wedding in Tuscany.

Ingham’s Group Limited was founded in 1918 by Walter Ingham Sr., when the family business purchased 42 hectares of bushland in Liverpool, western Sydney.

The acreage was initially owned by Walter Ingham Jr. farmed for fruit and vegetables, before the family turned to poultry farming, for which they are now famous.

The Ingham’s Enterprise was passed to Walter Ingham Jr.’s sons, Bob and Jack, who expanded the poultry business into the largest in Australia and New Zealand.

In 1983, the brothers made the very first Rich List of The Australian Financial Review. They are said to have a combined net worth of $150 million.

Jack’s grandchildren include sibling trio Tamie, Johnny and Katie Ingham. Another of his grandchildren is socialite, Jess Ingham.

In 2012, private equity firm TPG bought Ingham’s Enterprises Pty. Ltd for a reported $850 million.

Ingham’s heirs have nothing to do with the day-to-day running of the chicken business, but simply benefit from the wealth of previous generations. Daily Mail Australia approached Ingham Chicken for comment.