A factory near Selby will be brought to a standstill tonight when workers down tools in a dispute over pay.

GMB union members at British Gypsum, including more than 50 at the Sherburn-in-Elmet plant, will stage a 24-hour strike starting at midnight after pay talks ended in deadlock.

Three-quarters of union members voted for a series of 24-hour stoppages in a postal ballot.

And unless the company increases its offer of 3.5 per cent, another 24-hour strike will go ahead next Tuesday.

Union officials, who described the company's offer as an "insult", say the stoppages will cost British Gypsum hundreds of thousands of pounds.

GMB national officer Allan Black said: "All six plants throughout the UK will cease all production and distribution. This will massively disrupt the company's supply chain before, during and after the strike.

"Further action will follow if the company doesn't make a realistic pay offer. We have tried the negotiating table and we have tried reason - we now have to try direct action."

Mr Black told the Evening Press today: "There has been no movement from British Gypsum - their silence has been disappointingly deafening.

"We don't want to take strike action, but our members feel they have been pushed around.

A British Gypsum spokeswoman said last year's sales were good, but this year they were facing a number of cost increases in raw materials.

She said: "Most manufacturing companies have averaged pay settlements of about 2.5 per cent, so we feel that 3.5 per cent is a very fair offer."