Brewery drivers halt production
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DELIVERY drivers at Whitbread brewery plants have intensified their pickets and stopped production at the Luton brewery.
The two sides reached deadlock in their dispute over the operation of new equipment, and production workers at the seven distribution depots, including the Luton brewery, have now agreed not to handle anything involved in the dispute.
They have also refused to cross picket lines.
A company spokesman told CM that all the distribution workers had been invited to meetings at their plants to discuss the dispute but at some depots no one had turned up.
Efforts by the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Services (ACAS) have also met with failure in the four week old dispute. The company says that efforts are still continuing to find a solution.
"The men are saying that they want payment for the time they have lost on the stoppage. They won't carry out trials on the new equipment, as has been done by the rest of the group — and that is just not acceptable," said the spokesman.
The row blew up when the Whitbread group wanted the men to carry out trials on new six-wheel Bedford vehicles fit ted with bodies designed for ease of loading and unloading. The company also wanted to standardise on one type of pallet.
But Transport and General Workers' Union officer Terry Cooke said that the men would be breaking existing agreements with the company if they operated the equipment, and men at three London depots, Yarmouth, Luton and London Colney refused to go on with the trials.
Mr Cooke also alleged that the men had been locked out in some cases. He told CM this week: "I want to _emphasise that we are not on strike — but we are not operating this equipment."