Carlton United Breweries: Staff picket CUB factory as sackings stall beer production

Date
    July 12, 2016
    Sydney Morning Herald

Beer giant Carlton and United Breweries has sacked the entire maintenance workforce at Melbourne's biggest brewery, prompting threats of a boycott of the popular VB.   

CUB's Abbotsford plant makes some of the nation's best-selling beer brands, including Carlton Draught, Carlton Dry, VB, Crown Lager and Pure Blonde, as well as Mercury and Strongbow ciders.

Dozens of electricians and fitters lost their jobs after CUB axed a long-standing maintenance contract and have been protesting outside the gates of the Abbotsford brewery for 12 hours a day for the past four weeks.


The 54 workers were laid off last month before being invited to reapply for their old jobs on individual contracts, for what they say would be a 65 per cent wage cut once penalty rates and other entitlements were factored in.      


The brewery is having non-union replacement labour bussed in and out of the site every day past picketing workers.   

Brewery insiders have told Fairfax Media that beer production has taken a heavy hit since the layoffs, dropping by tens of thousands of slabs a week.


Some social media users have responded angrily to the sackings on the popular VB Facebook page, which has a following of 111,440 people.

"Start looking after the people that made you great – sacking your workers and offering them back their jobs with less pay, disgusting," one user said.   

"I won't be buying a VB slab this weekend, guaranteed."


Sacked Maintenance workers stand on the picket line outside CUB.

Another wrote: "Give your workers a fair go or we'll stop drinking your beer. See how much money that saves you."

Former brewery machine specialist Chris Brown said he and his co-workers felt like they had been "thrown to the dogs" by CUB.

"There are guys with newborns, expectant partners, people now struggling to pay doctors' bills, and there are three apprentices who were almost finished who have not even been taken into account."


"We've been thrown out to the coldest, wettest Melbourne winter in five years ... it's been a real shock and we have been going through all the emotional stages."

A source inside the Abbotsford plant said the site's ordinary production output had slowed by at least 35 per cent since the sackings.

"From the end of this month on, it's the busiest period of the year. There's the footy finals, then Christmas, then summer," the source said.


"I think CUB is going to get a really expensive lesson on the value of its labour force."

Internal CUB documents show a significant slump in manufacturing. Machine line efficiency data reveals a sharp deterioration in run times since the maintenance workers were sacked and replaced.

CUB would not comment on the impact of the sackings on beer and cider production volumes so far, but said supplies had not been affected.

A CUB spokeswoman said the tradesmen who lost their jobs had been paid out redundancy entitlements by the previous maintenance contractor.

She said CUB's new contractor, Programmed, was advertising the jobs with pay rates that were  "market-competitive and above-award", but was using temporary labour hire staff until the positions are filled.

"Programmed are using temporary labour hire until full-time roles are filled ... those people have been bussed in to ensure they can reach the site safely," the spokeswoman said.

"Some people filling temporary labour hire roles were approached by unknown people in the car park on their first day."

Electrical Trades Union state secretary Troy Gray said the sacked CUB staff, who were experienced in the brewery's highly complicated and unique machinery, were among the most skilled tradesmen in Melbourne.

"Those 50 workers ... have been working seven days a week, night and day, so the average punter out there can have a nice cold beer after a hard day's work, that's the way it should be," he said.

"Four weeks ago, [CUB] comes out and says you are all sacked on the spot – with all the arrogance of the big end of town – and said here's your cab charges, go to your new boss, it's a 65 per cent wage decrease."   

Mr Gray said the ETU would collect a $20 levy from its 20,000 members in Victoria to "support the locked-out CUB workers".

"This will be a war of attrition," he said. "Those that can endure will win this dispute, and we will win it."

Quote:


What sort of money are we talking about here?

VB is a crap beer anyway. No great loss.



I'll support the corporations moves if the whole executive board takes a 65% pay cut as well.

aqua,

The Lefties will lynch you!!!

Rally to protest sacking of CUB workers - 12 noon Thursday 14 July, 77 Southbank Blvd, Southbank   

ETU and AMWU





What:    Rally to protest sacking of 55 CUB maintenance workers, hosted by AMWU and ETU

When:   12noon Thursday 14th July

Where: 77 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank

Speakers: Adam Bandt MP, Member for Melbourne; Craig Kelly, AMWU Assistant State Secretary; Troy Gray, ETU State Secretary.

Notes:   CUB workers and union representatives will be available to the media at the rally.

Maintenance workers at Carlton and United Brewery’s (CUB) main brewery in Melbourne will be protesting tomorrow at CUB Head Office after they were terminated without notice and then offered a take-it-or-leave-it non-union deal with up to 65 per cent reduction in wages and entitlements.

The 55 fitters and electricians, members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and Electrical Trades Union (ETU), had their employment terminated in mid-June so a new contractor could re-employ them on base wage rates far less than the axed enterprise agreement.

Workers with up to 34 years of CUB experience have been protesting alongside apprentices outside the Abbotsford brewery for the past four weeks, and will tomorrow bring their protest to the doors of the CUB head office in Southbank.

The workers are demanding their immediate reinstatement at their previous agreement conditions and entitlements.

AMWU Assistant State Secretary Craig Kelly said the treatment of the CUB workers is a disgraceful demonstration of corporate greed that will do immense harm to the workers and their families.

“It’s outrageous that SAB Miller, the parent company of CUB posted a $4.8 billion profit last year, yet still slashes the wages of these experienced and loyal workers. SAB Miller and CUB need to reinstate these workers at their full wages and conditions and end this attack on basic fairness and working conditions,” said Mr Kelly.

ETU Secretary Troy Gray said “This has only occurred because the LNP has has given corporate cowboys the green light to plunder and pillage blue collar workers to their heartless content.”

“CUB is simply exploiting one of the gaping loopholes in Australian employment law that allows corporations to deny workers procedural fairness and good faith bargaining: Legal loopholes the LNP has no plan to fix, seemingly because they support threatening, bullying and coercive tactics by corporations against workers. The deafening silence on the treatment of these workers by Minister Cash strongly supports this perception,” said Troy.

The Abbotsford brewery produces leading brands like VB, Crown Lager, Melbourne Bitter, Carlton Dry, Pure Blonde and Strongbow.

So now there's an ethical reason not to buy VB apart from it tasting like crap bogan beer.