CLC endorses consumer boycott of Labatt imports: St. John’s brewery workers on strike since April

August 15, 2013     http://www.canadianlabour.ca

OTTAWA ― The Canadian Labour Congress has endorsed a national consumer boycott against a number of imported brands of Labatt beer and is calling on the company to return to the bargaining table.

“This is a David and Goliath struggle between about 50 local workers and the world’s largest multi-national brewing corporation trying to force its employees into a race to the bottom,” says CLC President Ken Georgetti. “Canadian workers and their unions are not going to stand idly by and allow this to happen.”

The workers in St. John’s have been on strike since April 10. They are members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public Employees (NAPE/NUPGE). Their employer is the Canadian division of the Anheuser-Busch InBev brewing corporation, which has after-tax profits of more than $9 billion.

“This multi-national company is trying in St. John’s to impose concessions and roll-backs on its employees which would establish a precedent for its other unionized workers across the globe,” says Georgetti. “We can’t allow them to get away with that.”

The national consumer boycott was requested by the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), the national union to which the striking workers belong. The Labatt imports being targeted for boycott include Stella Artois, Becks, and Lowenbrau. The focus is on imported products in order to prevent other unionized Labatt employees in Canada from experiencing a loss of work.

In Newfoundland and Labrador people are also being urged to boycott a number of other Labatt beers, including Budweiser, Labatt Blue, Alexander Keith’s and Kokanee.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.3 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils.

Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca
Follow us on Twitter @CanadianLabour

Contact: Dennis Gruending, CLC Communications: Tel. 613-526-7431.
Cell-text: 613-878-6040. Email: dgruending@clc-ctc.ca

Canada: Billions in profit, cuts for local workers, scab-brewed beer for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians!

http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net

The war to set global labour standards in the brewing industry is being fought in the Canadian city of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

On one side, the Canadian division of the world’s largest (and very profitable) brewing corporation, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev).

On the other, one of the global giant’s smallest and most vulnerable local unions in what appears to be an attempt to establish a pattern of concessions and roll-backs that the corporation could then try to impose on all of its other unionized workers around the world.

The workers, who are members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public Employees (NAPE/NUPGE), have been on strike since April 10. Before they were in a legal position to exercise their right to strike, the company attempted to force the workers to train the scabs who are now doing their jobs.

AB InBev and its shareholders enjoy their massive profits thanks to the loyal and careful labour of workers around the world, just like those in St. John’s. But if the corporation sees fit to demand that they accept concessions for the sake of a tiny bit more in profit, what will stop it from demanding similar concessions from its workers around the world?

Please go to:  http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1867 and write to AB InBev and demand that they treat their workers, and their workers’ communities, with fairness and respect.