A planned strike at supermarket chain Morrisons scheduled for this Friday has been suspended for seven days so that talks can continue.
Negotiations, which started on Wednesday in an effort to avert industrial action, will resume on Friday.
A spokesman for the Transport & General Workers Union (T&G) union said that all-day talks with management at the retailer “had made some progress”.
Thousands of staff at sites including Bristol, Warrington and Aylesford in Kent had threatened to walk out for three days starting on Friday. They also had been planning a second strike at Morrisons depots, starting on 29 September and lasting for six days.
The GMB and T&G unions claimed that the company, was planning to close a number of depots and shed thousands of jobs.