Press Release

FBT-2004-118-ED PRESS RELEASE Closing down a profitable brewery: it is pure corporate greed! Interbrew, the world’s local brewer seems to be more interested in closing local breweries than maintaining any brewing heritage Leuven - 28 October 2004. Interbrew workers (the Transport and General Workers Union-T&G) from Boddingtons brewery present in Leuven received strong support from EFFAT, the European Federation of the Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions, ACV-CSC and ABVV-FGTB, the Belgian unions, as well as from delegates from French, German, Luxembourg, Dutch trade unions, for their campaign to keep the Boddingtons brewery in Manchester open. On 9th September 2004, InBev management (formerly Interbrew) announced the closure of the Boddingtons brewery. Boddingtons “Cream of Manchester”, as it is called, has been brewed in this local brewery since 1778 using spring water from its own well. Two years ago, first plans to close this historical brewery were fought off and the workers and their representatives agreed with the management on new work organisation and on costs reductions to secure the long-term future of the brewery. Mike Thompson, T&G Convenor, said “as a consequence of this agreement, productivity increased by 40%, the brand grew by 4% and profit were up to £ 16.5m (€ 24m)”. The T&G delegation, joined by representatives of EFFAT, Belgian unions and delegates from various InBev sites including from Luxembourg, Germany, France and Netherlands, and with the support of the association “Campaign for Real Ale”, came to Leuven to meet InBev management. The delegation strongly opposed the plan and expressed the determination of the Boddingtons’ workforce in a meeting with Marc Croonen, InBev’s senior Human Resources Executive. Mike Thompson said, “we have looked at the figures and can find no reason for the closure. The workforce has done everything they were asked to and more. Now that energy and creativity is being channelled into the campaign to save jobs and the brewery. The “save the cream” website has had 100.000 hits. Supporters of the campaign, among them all the students around the north west of England, are calling for a boycott of Boddingtons and other InBev products, such as Stella Artois, if the brewery is closed. We do not feel that the company have factered this in and the damage to the brand this proposal will have”. Mike Benner, Campaign for Real Ale Chief Executive, added, “Interbrew entered the UK market with promises to build on prized British beers such as Boddingtons and Draught Bass and this has simply not happened. Interbrew's principles as 'the World's Local Brewer' appear to have been abandoned in favour of profit maximisation at all costs”. Belgian unions said,"this project shows the importance of the international cooperation between the trade unions. As Belgian trade unions, we play a particular role, considering that InBev is based in Leuven. We have called several times for the set-up of a “code of conduct" for all InBev sites in the world. We want InBev to act responsibly also at European and international levels, to pay attention to local traditions, job places and to bring social support when necessary. In order to better tackle such scenario’s in the future, we call for the increase the competences and the mandates of the European Works Council. Harald Wiedenhofer, Secretary General of EFFAT, said, “This announcement demonstrates that InBev management fails to honour its commitments and only aims at pleasing speculators whereas the Boddingtons workers did their share. What is happening to the workers in Boddingtons can happen everywhere else, be it Hannover, Dommelen or even Leuven...This is why there is this European action: to let InBev management understand that neither the workers nor the consumers are ready to accept such provocative decisions”. -ends- For further information please call Eric DRESIN, at EFFAT on 02.218.77.30 – email: [email protected]. EFFAT also recommends to visit the save the cream website. .

Load more