Brewery workers face 65 percent pay cut

Workers at Carlton United Breweries in Abbotsford are entering their fourth week protesting outside the factory gate.

The electricians and fitters, members of the ETU and AMWU, were called to a meeting on 10 June and told they were sacked, but could reapply for their old jobs on a non-union, individual agreement that would have cut pay by 65 percent, according to the unions. In a move that seems to have caught the company by surprise, all of the workers refused to reapply.

Without the 55 experienced maintenance workers, the company has reportedly had a lot of trouble keeping up production of the high volume brands it produces such as Carlton Dry, VB, Pure Blond, Carlton Draught and Strongbow ciders. It has resorted to employing inexperienced scabs flown in from interstate. They are driven in and out daily in a rental van with curtain-covered windows, past the protesting workers, to collective cries of “Shame!”

The brewery’s machines are large, specialised and hard to maintain, according to one worker on the picket line. He says the scabs are having a lot of trouble keeping them running, which is a difficult job even for the experienced maintenance workers. They are needed daily to help switch the machines between different products; in their absence, the two-hour job has taken up to 16 hours. The machines process high volumes – more than 1,000 cans per minute on one line – so small glitches in production can have a large impact on output.

Sources at a major Melbourne liquor warehouse say that stocks of Carlton Dry, one of the brewery’s biggest selling products, are running lower than usual.

Working conditions at the plant have been built up through decades of hard struggle. They are among the best in the industry. The company has been looking to tear them down for a while – in 2015 it tried to ram through an agreement that would have imposed a three-year wage freeze, but workers stymied the plan. There were short walk-offs by forklift drivers and the threat of a strike in the lead-up to the AFL grand final.

This new attack, if successful, would mean those at the top get their snouts even deeper into an already deep trough – CUB’s parent company, SAB Miller, reported $4.4 billion in profit last year, and CEO Alan Miller was paid $62 million.

The unions are holding a solidarity BBQ on Monday, 4 July, at 12 noon at the brewery, Southampton Crescent, Abbotsford. Workers will be protesting at CUB headquarters at 12 noon the following day at 77-87 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank.

The protest at the brewery gate is ongoing, from 6am to 6pm weekdays. Visits are welcome.