PUBS and restaurants could face a shortage of beer over the August bank holiday weekend after delivery drivers voted to go on strike
The drivers work for logistics firm GXO and supply 40% of the UK hospitality industry’s beer, according to Unite.
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The late summer bank holiday falls on August 30 this year, giving workers a three-day weekend and the perfect opportunity to go to the pub or out for dinner.
But punters could be disappointed as beer deliveries will be delayed in the run-up to and during the bank holiday weekend if the industrial action goes ahead.
Around 1,000 drivers, who work from 26 sites across the UK, will go on strike for 24-hours from 10am on August 24.
This will be followed by a second walkout on September 2.
Drivers will “work to rule” from August 24 until November 15 – this means they will follow their working rules and hours exactly to reduce output.
There will also be a ban on overtime, Unite said today.
The pay dispute will put further pressure on the food, hospitality and logistics sectors, which have been struggling due to a lack of staff.
Army HGV drivers have been put on standby to relieve Britain’s chronic shortage of truckers and resulting food shortages.
Britain has a shortage of 100,000 lorry drivers, exacerbated by the test and trace pingdemic.
The situation has left some supermarket shelves empty and major food companies struggling to cope with demand.
Unite’s members voted for strike action by 97% and for industrial action short of a strike by 99% over the company’s offer of a 1.4% pay rise for 2021.
The union also claimed that workers have lost between £8,000 and £10,000 over the last year due to furlough and lack of overtime, coupled with no pay increase for 2020.
Unite national officer for the drinks industry Joe Clarke said: “The threat of a late summer beer drought now increases for Britain’s thirsty beer drinkers as our members make 40% of the beer deliveries in the country.
“This disruption would be on top of the ‘pingdemic’ and the well-publicised HGV driver shortages that are already hitting the sector.
“Now industrial action looms for late August, we call, once again, for the company to engage in meaningful negotiations regarding a decent pay increase for our members.”
A spokesperson for GXO said: “We favour dialogue in all our negotiations.
“Discussions are ongoing in order to reach agreement, in particular for the hospitality sector that is only now emerging from the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown.”
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