E-Malt.com News article: Australia: Workers at Carlton and United's biggest brewery walk off and raise threat of further strikes

Hundreds of workers at Carlton and United's biggest brewery walked off on August 25, and have raised the threat of further strikes against the beer giant, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Production lines came to a halt for three hours as the Abbotsford brewery's production and distribution workers attended a stop-work meeting in condemnation of the company's "trashing of Australian jobs", union officials said.

The meeting also voiced concerns that the "inexperienced" temporary labour-hire staff, brought in to replace the brewery's recently sacked maintenance crew, are jeopardising site safety. Workers are warning of "escalating action" that could threaten beer supplies to bars and bottle shops if the former staff are not reinstated.

It comes as the brewery's sacked maintenance crew continues picketing outside the gates of the plant. The dispute has gone on for 10 weeks since 55 workers lost their jobs and refused to reapply for the positions on inferior pay and conditions with a new contractor.

The feud appears to have become increasingly hostile, with Australia's workplace umpire last week moving to "de-escalate" improper conduct by banning unionists from harassing the temporary labour-hire workers.

CUB said the replacement workers had to be bussed in and out of the site every day, after some of them were "approached by unknown people" in the car park on their first day.

Since the stoush began, unions have been calling for a boycott of CUB products – some of nation's most popular beers – including Carlton Draught, Carlton Dry, VB, Crown Lager and Pure Blonde. The brewery also makes Mercury and Strongbow cider.

Brewery workers have reported a "significant upsurge" in equipment failure since the maintenance workers were terminated and replaced with temporary labour-hire workers.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, which covers the brewery's forklift drivers, said workers were right to be alarmed about the impact on site safety.

"In sacking these 55 maintenance workers, CUB has case aside over 900 years of collective knowledge skills and experience," union safety manager Gerry Ayers said.

"When big corporations put profit before safety, too often the consequences are tragic."

Union officials said work stoppage on August 25 included 200 day and afternoon shift workers, and estimated about 20,000 fewer slabs would be produced for the day.

United Voice, representing the majority of employees, has issued warnings of "escalating action" if management refuses to resolve the dispute: "[CUB owner] SABMiller's contempt for its long-standing maintenance staff has left our members angry that their own jobs, and their safety, may be at risk because the new maintenance workers simply don't have the skills and experience needed to keep the brewery running safely and smoothly."

A CUB spokeswoman on August 25 said the brewery was still producing enough beer ahead of peak consumption periods.

"The brewery is still producing what we, the organisation, is asking of them given we're still in winter," she said.

"We feel comfortable about our ability to keep producing leading into footy finals."

CUB has been seeking to cut costs at the heavily unionised Abbotsford brewery to make it more competitive, saying the "generous conditions negotiated over the decades have resulted in what we see as an unsustainable situation".

The brewery has undergone a decline in volumes in the past five years as more beer is produced at "more cost-effective sites" within CUB's network.

The CUB spokeswoman said the tradesmen who lost their jobs had been paid out redundancy entitlements by the previous maintenance contractor, and the new contractor was using temporary labour-hire staff until the positions were filled.

"Qualified and skilled maintenance contractors have been employed at the site who have been appropriately inducted and are operating safely alongside the rest of our workforce," she said.


21 August, 2016