Greene King workers set for five days of strikes

Workers at brewer Greene King are the latest to vote in favour of strike action ahead of the Christmas period.

Union Unite said 188 of its members who are based in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, Eastwood in Nottinghamshire and Abingdon in Oxfordshire will walk out for five days from 5 December over a pay dispute.

The workers brew and distribute Greene King’s products including IPA, Old Speckled Hen and Abbot Ale.

Unite said members voted for strike action after being offered a 3% pay increase and a one-off payment of £650 by Greene King.

The union said this amounted to a “real terms pay cut” with inflation now over 10%.

Greene King runs over 2,700 pubs restaurants and hotels across the UK and is owned by Hong Kong based property company CK Asset Holdings, which paid £2.7b for the business in 2019.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Greene King’s owners are incredibly wealthy, the failure to offer workers a decent pay rise is all about greed and not about need.”

A Greene King spokesperson said it had contingency plans in place to minimise disruption and would be speaking to customers in the coming days.

The spokesperson added: “We are disappointed that the union has encouraged its members to reject our pay offer, as well as a number of other benefits, and pursue this course of action.

"Our pay rise offer is fair and consistent across the business, especially given the challenging wider economic environment.”

Several waves of strike action are set to take place in December. Drivers for Best Food Logistics, which delivers fresh food to restaurant chains including Wagamama and Pizza Express, have voted in favour of industrial action while rail workers are to walk out over eight days across December and January.

Image: J M Ritchie / Shutterstock