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GMB has announced that strike action at Asda has moved closer after thousands of workers said they were ready to walk out over the company’s “failure to make an acceptable pay offer”.
The association’s representatives will meet after the next pay talks to agree the next steps in moving to a formal strike ballot after 94% of warehouse and clerical workers and LGV drivers voted in favour of strike action.
The dispute began after the supermarket failed to offer distribution staff a “meaningful pay offer” – with inflation running at a 10-year high.
GMB said it wrote to Asda asking if it is holding back distribution workers’ pay because of “potential future liabilities” in a long-running equal pay claim.
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said: “This immense vote in favour of industrial action shows the bubbling anger and resentment among the workers.”
An Asda spokesperson added: “The GMB has recently made an additional pay claim on top of a two-year deal which was agreed with them in May. As our annual pay negotiations have just begun and discussions are ongoing, any talk of industrial action is premature. In addition, we have responded to the driver shortage by offering all of our existing HGV drivers a £1k one-off discretionary incentive retention payment.”
