Several teams of Amicus staff have been at the theme parks over the last two days to recruit the mostly seasonal staff to the UK's largest private sector union.

Amicus say they are disappointed with the company's reaction to their presence and described the company's actions as "intimidating".

Amicus say they want to help staff at the two Surrey parks as they have at Alton Towers in Staffordshire where they gained trade union recognition for staff three years ago and have won significant gains for staff there, including Bank Holiday pay for all Alton Towers' employees and a pay deal which gave up to a 36% pay increase over three years for some Alton Towers' staff.

Sally Kosky, Amicus' Head of Organising recruitment, said today:

"All we want to do is make sure that staff understand their right to join a trade union but the company obviously does not want their employees to join one.

"Their reaction was hostile to say the least. They would not even let Amicus staff on site today and threatened us with arrest for aggravated trespass if we even attempted to enter the park."

Amicus say they are now going to try and talk to the company about speaking to staff at the two sites again.