Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC (NASDAQ:CCEP) tricked lower on Thursday after workers at the company’s facility in Wakefield, England voted in favor of a strike by a high majority percentage of 87%.
The Wakefield location is the largest soft drinks plant in Europe and a stoppage in production could impact supply of brands like Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Monster across the continent.
The Unite union in the UK indicated a two-week walkout could begin on June 8 after the recent proposal from Coca-Cola European Partners for an average raise of 6% was rejected.
A spokesperson for CCEP said the bottler’s pay offer was very competitive and noted frontline staff were given a £1K bonus last year to help with rising costs. “We remain fully committed to maintaining talks with our colleagues at our Wakefield site and their representatives to secure a constructive outcome,” noted the spokesperson.
Shares of CCEP were down 0.39% at 10:31 a.m. on Thursday. The stock is up more than 16% on a year-to-date basis.