BOSSES at the Federation Brewery, in Gateshead, say strike action planned for this week could threaten the future of the site.

More than 70 staff - the majority of the workforce at the Dunston site - will take part in a 48-hour walkout at the weekend in a dispute over legal action by unions against the new owners, Scottish Courage.

Scottish Courage, which bought the brewery earlier this year, is facing a tribunal alleging that it failed to consult staff at Federation about the buyout.

Bosses offered workers a 3.2 per cent pay rise in return for a pledge from the unions to drop the legal action.

However, workers voted overwhelmingly to reject the offer and take strike action.

A spokesman for Scottish Courage, a subsidiary of Scottish & Newcastle, said the company believed the offer was fair and reasonable.

The spokesman said: "Our aim, over time, is to make the Dunston brewery a world-class production site and to ensure that we preserve brewing jobs on Tyneside for years to come. This can only be achieved through co-operation, sensible negotiation and vastly improved efficiency.

"Any strike action taken at Dunston is a threat to customer confidence, the good name of Federation beer brands and, ultimately, the long-term viability of the site."

A ballot of about 75 workers by the GMB union voted by 97 per cent in favour of industrial action. A further 12 workers from the Amicus union voted against strikes.

Michael Hopper, from the GMB, said it was unfair to make workers chose between a pay rise and legal action.

He said: "Workers are entitled to a pay rise and there is no way it should come to them with all these strings attached."

The Edinburgh brewer, which bought Federation in May, said it was disappointed by the stance of the GMB, which rejected an invitation from the company to attend talks at the concilliation service Acas. Scottish Courage plans to close its Tyne Brewery, in Newcastle, in the spring, and transfer production of Newcastle Brown Ale from there to Dunston.

About 100 jobs have been lost since the takeover, though the company said all of those had been achieved through voluntary redundancies.

Scottish Courage said it had put in place a number of contingency plans to ensure that Federation products were brewed and supplied to customers with as little disruption as possible.