BELGIUM: AB InBev Belgian production at a total standstill

Record ID: 340084

  • Title: BELGIUM: AB InBev Belgian production at a total standstill
  • Date: 20th January 2010
  • Summary: LIEGE, BELGIUM (JANUARY 20, 2010) (REUTERS) BEER TAP AND REFLECTION OF STUDENTS BEING SERVED FREE BEERS INBEV WORKER SERVING BEERS TO STUDENTS BEER BEING POURED INTO GLASS STUDENT LEAVING WITH THREE GLASSES OF BEER STUDENTS QUEUING GLASSES OF BEER AND BEER TAPS EXTERIOR OF JUPILER PLANT WITH JUPILER FLAGS FLYING AND CROWD OF STUDENTS AROUND BEER TENT GIRL DRINKING
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA69NPB86I7RT7TQPTIV8RPLBWT
  • Story Text: The dispute between AB Inbev and its Belgian brewery workers over planned job cuts escalates. Cafe owners fear a shortage of InBev beers before the weekend.
    Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer, temporarily laid off its Belgian brewery workers, stepping up a dispute over planned job cuts that is running its local brands dry.
    For the past two weeks, Belgian workers have blockaded the entrances to the company's large plants in Leuven and Liege and for a week the smaller Hoegaarden factory in protest at AB InBev's plan to shed 299 of its 2,700 Belgian workers.
    Two mediation attempts have failed to break the deadlock. AB InBev's Belgian unit, InBev Belgium, and unions said a third session would take place on Thursday (January 21).
    "We are still working. The employer should still pay us. We do not want to strike but we are blocking the entire production from coming out. Economically, we are choking the company and we will only let it go when they will drop their plan," said Union leader Marc Sparmont.
    Belgian drinkers, who are among the biggest consumers of beer in the world, are starting to feel the effects.
    Supermarket chain Delhaize said on Wednesday (January 20) its central depot had run out of InBev beers Leffe, Stella Artois and Hoegaarden, except for example in non-alcoholic form.
    Carrefour said it was stocking up with more rival beers, such as Heineken's Maes.
    Yvan Roque, the president of the union of cafes and restaurants' owners Horeca, said cafes in Brussels could be dry of InBev products by Friday (January 22).
    The blockade could have devastating effect, he said.
    "Here in Brussels, we have 1,600 cafes so you can see the scope of it, and if they can't deliver their primary products, beer, automatically they will not be able to satisfy their clients, they will loose some of their clients and some may even have to close. This is unacceptable," Roque said.
    Roque called for a swift solution of the dispute.
    InBev Belgium exports some 55 percent of its beers, with some impact in neighbouring markets.
    The company said it had been unable to bring in raw materials and packaging to the breweries and that its on-site storage facilities were now completely full.
    It said due to the circumstances it had to make the workers temporarily unemployed.
    Unions called the move a "lock-out" and a heightening of tension given that workers willing to work would not be paid.
    AB InBev, which also makes Budweiser and Beck's, has said it could cut some 10 percent of its 8,000 strong workforce in western Europe due to falling beer markets.
    InBev Belgium said it had frozen the plan and added that up to 150 early retirement plans and 70 new positions would considerably lessen the impact of any job cuts.
    BRX/MAK/JRC
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