Workers at the Budweiser Brewing Group's Lancashire site, which brews Budweiser, Stella Artois, Becks, Boddingtons and Export Pale Ale, have voted to down tools over a real terms pay cut. As a result of the strike, people are warning that the country could face a 'summer beer drought'.
A total of 225 GMB Union members at the Samlesbury site, near Preston, will begin an overtime ban, meaning that they will not engage in training or complete face-to-face handovers from Wednesday, May 11. GMB organiser Stephen Boden said: "This industrial action is a result of Budweiser brewing group's management making a frankly insulting pay offer. They are choosing to ignore workers and put profit before people with this derisory pay offer."
The union said that after "months of discussion", the world’s biggest brewer tabled a full and final offer of a 3% increase for 2022 and 3% for 2023, with increases in overtime rates, reports the Liverpool Echo. However, it said that with the cost-of-living crisis and inflation at 9%, "the offer amounts to a massive pay cut in real terms".
