WORKERS at Southampton cigarette-maker BAT are to stage a 24-hour walkout over pay on November 3, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Unions members at the Regent's Park factory have threatened to strike every Wednesday after that until the dispute is resolved.

Last-ditch talks between BAT bosses and unions aimed at averting industrial action are planned for early next week.

But workers are still planning to mount pickets at the gates of the 26-acre Southampton factory and sub-contractors to the site have been asked not to cross picket lines.

Strikes could have a big impact, with thousands of jobs reliant on the facility, which is also Southampton docks' biggest customer and a key client for a number of other businesses.

Amicus union workers at the plant last week voted to hold a series of walkouts over a 2.6 per cent pay offer from bosses and talks held yesterday failed to resolve the dispute.

However, there are signs of light at the end of the tunnel with BAT now saying it is willing to consider a deal spread over two years.

Previously BAT had offered only a one-year agreement.

Yet the unions, who previously compared negotiating with the company to "running into a brick wall", refused to see that as movement forward.

"We spent two hours arguing and going round in circles," said Amicus representative Mike Budd who was always after a two-year deal.

"I wouldn't say they have moved. I think they are more optimistic than we are and we wait until Tuesday to see where they go.

"These things are always sorted out around the table never on the picket line. We want to resolve it as much as the company does, I'm sure."

BAT, which made interim profits this year of more than £1.3 billion, said: "Discussions with Amicus took place on Thursday and will resume on Tuesday. In the meantime the company will consider options for a two-year agreement."

Bosses said they were surprised and disappointed by the strike vote.

A spokesman said: "We are extremely disappointed in the ballot result. It comes at a critical time for our UK business and threatens to compromise all our collective efforts to date."

BAT workers, who have an average salary of about £26,000, voted by 195 to 119 to strike over pay. Support for some kind of action short of a strike was even stronger with 254 workers backing the idea with just 61 against.

The factory, which employs 1,200 people, is BAT's only remaining UK production facility and produces brands such as Dunhill, State Express 555 and Rothmans for export outside the UK.