BREWERY workers at the AB InBev factory in Magor have begun strike action which is over a prolonged pay dispute.
Nearly 300 staff who are members of the Unite trade union are taking industrial action in the form of four separate 12-hour strikes.
The union and AB InBev had held eleventh-hour talks to avert the strike, but an improved pay offer was rejected in a ballot by 82.6 per cent of the union’s members.
Richard Jackson, regional officer for Unite, told the Free Press previously that the strike was over a pay claim due for January this year, and negotiations between AB InBev and Unite had been opened in October 2018.
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An overtime ban, brought in by Unite in September, remains in place, Mr Jackson said this week.
He added that there were talks scheduled with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) for October 30.
One day of strike action was on October 10. The next day of strike action is scheduled for October 31, 7am-7pm, with Unite planning to announce further dates for November.
A spokeswoman for AB InBev said the firm’s priority remained to find an amicable solution, and was hopeful the ACAS talks would help find a solution to the impasse.
She said AB InBev had made “significant investment” at the brewery in recent years, and since 2013 had also delivered above-inflation pay rises for employees year-on-year – something it “hoped to continue to do in the future”.
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