Hundreds of workers at Grampian Country Foods are being balloted on industrial action later this week after union negotiations over pay, pensions and deals with contract workers broke down.
The strike would include 2,000 staff at Grampian sites in Scotland and around the UK.
The food manufacturer said it hoped that discussions with the Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G) would continue to prevent strike action.
But T&G national secretary Chris Kaufman said he was frustrated that no real progress had been made in the talks.
“We had gone out of our way to give the company an opportunity to reach agreement with us but it had brought nothing to the party. It had not even agreed a common pay settlement date, which would have cost it nothing.”
The union had initially planned to strike last month but imposed a four-week suspension in the hope that the issues would be resolved.
Grampian said it was “disappointed” that T&G had taken the decision to ballot members.
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The ballot will begin on Thursday (22 March).
