Guinness faces substantial losses in its domestic and export markets as talks aimed at averting tomorrow's strike broke down last night.
Five unions were in discussions at the Labour Relations Commission all day yesterday but there were early indications from their umbrella body, the Joint Union Forum, that the strike would go ahead.
The dispute centres on Guinness's planned closure of its packaging arm, Dundalk Packaging, with the expected loss of around 150 jobs. The Guinness Staff Union, which represents about 800 technical, supervisory and administrative staff, agreed to the decision to close the plant and will not be involved in the strike action.
The ATGWU, SIPTU, TEEU, AEEU and UCATT unions want Guinness to guarantee redeployment of the Dundalk staff.
A spokesman for Guinness, Mr Pat Barry, said last night the company was "very disappointed" the talks had broken down, given that a majority of staff, including those in the Guinness Staff Union, had voted against a strike. Mr Barry said the company was concerned that the strike would "impact seriously" on the domestic and export markets, worth a combined £15 million a week.
Although some pubs have ordered extra stock this week, supplies of Guinness, Harp, Budweiser, Smithwicks and Carlsberg are likely to run low if the strike goes on.