If you read in the city pages of your newspaper that the president of Heinz had declared he was handing over production of baked beans to Crosse & Blackwell, you might think he was bonkers. A similar response would greet a statement from the boss of Nescafé that he was leaving Maxwell House free to control the instant coffee market.

Yet consider this remarkable quote by Stuart MacFarlane, president of AB InBev: “Our focus is on Budweiser, Beck’s and Stella. I’m happy to say to regional brewers, ‘you take control of the cask-ale business — you do it better’.” I’m not making it up. It appeared in this paper, so it must be true.

At the last count, the cask-ale sector of the brewing industry was worth some £1.4bn a year in sales. As it’s the only growth sector of the market, that figure may have increased.

And yet Mr MacFarlane isn’t interested. Can there be any rational explanation for a major brewing company turning its back on a profitable and growing sector? This is the same Stuart MacFarlane who has put up for sale Boddingtons, Draught Bass and Flowers cask beers.

At present, I’m wading through proofs for the next Good Beer Guide, noting that Draught Bass has become more widely available again after years in the doldrums. Marston’s, which brews the beer for AB InBev, has used its skills as a brewer in Burton-on-Trent to return Draught Bass to its former glory.

Last week I was visiting Shrewsbury and dropped in to the historic Loggerheads pub. On the bar was a pump clip with the famous red triangle logo. “Hello, old friend,” I said and ordered a pint of Bass. It was in fine nick, with that famous “Burton snatch” on the aroma from the salty, sulphury water of the Trent Valley, and juicy malt, tart fruit and spicy hops on the palate and finish.

If I were Mr MacFarlane, I would be proud to own such a famous and respected brand. Knowing its history and the fact that it once accounted for two million barrels a year, I would make every effort to restore it to its rightful place on the bar and get sales growing again.

But Mr MacFarlane isn’t interested. He’s not alone. Heineken UK closed its major ale brewery in Gateshead, sending Newcastle Brown off to John Smith’s in Tadcaster. When I last checked, Tadcaster was in Yorkshire, just the place to brew a revered Geordie beer. Heineken also closed the Reading brewery, one of much-travelled Courage beers’ many homes. Heineken’s predecessor, Scottish & Newcastle, sold off the Courage beers because volumes were too small for it to bother with. Now brewed by Wells & Young’s, Courage Best is the company’s biggest ale brand.

Excuse me for a moment while I scratch my head…

Carlsberg has shown its true priorities by announcing that, when it closes the Tetley brewery in Leeds, the keg version of Tetley Bitter will transfer to John Smith’s while cask will move to Banks’s in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands. Get ready for Yorkshire folk demanding home rule and a sign above John Smith’s door: “Abandon hope all ales that enter here.”

Molson Coors

We mustn’t leave Molson Coors out of the equation. Alone among the global brewers at work in Britain, the company has made a small effort to ignite its ale sales. It has been promising for two years now to launch a new premium cask ale called Red Shield, with a name that cashes in on the fame and popularity of the bottled Worthington White Shield. But the beer never appears. When I ask Molson Coors about a launch, I’m told it will be in the spring… summer… the autumn.

What’s the problem, chaps? You know how to brew beer. It’s a simple process. You may be an American-Canadian group, but you have people on the pay roll in Burton who’ve brewed a bit of cask in their time and could tell you how it’s done.

Or perhaps it will never appear. Molson Coors is rumoured to be in the running to buy Draught Bass from AB InBev and if the group succeeds it wouldn’t want an almost identical beer such as Red Shield.

When you survey the giant brewer’s antics, you might consider they don’t know their rear end from their arm joint. Many years ago, when I first drank Stella Artois in Leuven, Belgium, I considered it a fine interpretation of a Pilsner-style lager. Now I wouldn’t cross the road to drink it. Instead of turning up his nose at cask beer, Stuart MacFarlane might care to tell us how Interbrew/InBev/AB InBev has allowed a good beer to wither on the hop bine. Simple: the group has put the pursuit of volumes and profit above quality.

Molson Coors recently complained it was making just a penny a pint profit on Carling. The other global giants face the same problem as they bow before the Great God Supermarket. Years ago, big brewers turned their backs on cask ales because, they said, they were low-profit beers compared to lager and keg.

Now cask is making tills ring. Before it’s too late, before one of the globals crashes or stops brewing, they might spot their error and start to brew the beer that increasing numbers of pub-goers want to drink.

SUDBURY, Ont. — Workers at international mining giant Vale in Ontario have approved a new labour agreement, ending a year-long strike.

Workers in Sudbury voted 75 per cent in favour of the proposal, while Vale workers in Port Colborne voted 74 per cent in favour of the deal.

The strike at the former Inco Ltd. began on July 13, 2009, and was markedly bitter at times, with the union accusing the Vale of bad faith bargaining and the company taking the union to court over a variety of alleged incidents on the picket lines.

Vale said it needed to cut labour costs to keep its operations competitive, but workers argued the Brazilian company makes billions of dollars a year and doesn’t need concessions from workers.

The company raised the ire of workers when it used non-striking office, clerical and technical employees as well as replacement workers to restart some operations during the strike. Despite this, the output from Vale’s Canadian operations — which account for more than 10 per cent of the world’s nickel mine supply — has been significantly lower than normal for the past year.

The agreement will see more than 3,000 workers get a raise and a big signing bonus.

However, it will also see new employees put on a defined-contribution pension plan, as opposed to the existing defined-benefit plan. Defined-contribution plans depend on market returns and don’t guarantee a steady income the way defined-benefit plans do.

To offset this, existing workers under the current defined-benefit plan will get a boost in their post-retirement income, and the existing long-term disability plan will also be improved.

Workers will get incremental raises totalling an estimated $2.46 an hour by 2014, and will receive a back-to-work bonus of $2,000, plus another $2,000 if production reaches 95 per cent of its maximum for 42 days within six months of ratification.

The new contract will also raise the price at which the nickel bonus kicks in to US$3.75 a pound from the current level of $2.25 a pound, and it will cap the nickel bonus at 25 per cent of workers’ wages. The concession means workers making $29.40 an hour could earn a maximum annual bonus of $15,288.

Vale says it intends to eliminate 113 of the more than 3,000 people who worked for the company’s Sudbury operations before the strike, but it is hopeful that number will be covered by retirements and workers who quit over the past year.

All employees will be back at work within six weeks, and both sides will drop lawsuits launched during the strike.

Brazil-based Vale acquired Inco Ltd. for $19 billion in 2006 and recently dropped the “Inco” from its name.

This was the longest strike at the Sudbury operations in their century-long history, exceeding a lengthy 1978-79 dispute by about three months. It has raised questions of the responsibilities foreign companies take on when they acquire Canadian assets.

About 200 striking employees at a mine in Voisey’s Bay, N.L., have not yet reached an agreement.

Vale’s Canadian operations include six nickel mines, a mill, a smelter and a refinery in Sudbury; a refinery in Port Colborne; a nickel-cobalt-copper mine in Voisey’s Bay; and three nickel mines, a mill, a smelter and a refinery in Thompson, Man.

Vale has more than 100,000 employees around the world and is a global leader in the production of iron ore pellets, aluminum, coal, nickel, copper, steel and other resources.

  More than 3,100 workers at Vale operations in Sudbury and Port Colborne will vote on a tentative new contract this week that could end a strike that started almost a year ago.

The United Steelworkers and Vale reached agreement on Sunday to resolve a dispute over nine fired workers during the strike that had held up a membership vote on a five year deal last week.

“We have finally got it done and now it’s up to the members,” said Wayne Fraser, the union’s district director.

Workers will vote on the deal at membership meetings this Wednesday and Thursday. The union won’t disclose terms of the deal until the meetings.

Members of Steelworkers Local 6500 and 6200, who earn an average of about $29.50 an hour excluding benefits, walked off the job last July 13 over the issues of changes in their pension plan, a bonus formula and contracting out work.

The strike culminated deteriorating labour relations between the union and Brazilian-based Vale, which bought Canadian mining giant Inco in 2006. The workers had rejected a company offer in March.

Vale shocked the union and deepened the bitterness between both sides by resuming partial operations and hiring replacement workers during the strike. Inco had never attempted to continue operations during numerous strikes in the last 50 years.

The strike has caused growing hardships for striking workers and slowed down the Sudbury economy significantly.

The two sides had negotiated the deal after marathon talks with the assistance of mediator Kevin Burkett except for the lingering issue of a process how to handle the dismissal of nine workers for alleged infractions including damage to company property during the strike.

But Ontario Labour Minister Peter Fonseca called both sides to Toronto on Friday and instructed them to immediately resume talks. The Ontario Labour Relations Board has scheduled a hearing on Friday so both sides can present arguments on the issue of the fired workers.

The union has said Vale’s decision to leave the issue at an impasse and refuse to agree to arbitration is a violation of the company’s responsibility to bargain.

The strike is the longest walkout in the history of the former sprawling Inco mining operations, which trace their roots to the rich Sudbury mineral deposit more than a century ago.

However an 8½ month strike by more than 11,000 workers at the same operations in 1978-79 is the biggest walkout in Canadian history in terms of person-lost work days.

Ontario (LBOC) - On the last weekend in May, 2,350 Beer Store employees and members of UFCW 12R24 volunteered at 440 Beer Stores across the province to raise $1.065 million dollars for leukemia and lymphoma research.

In the fifth annual Returns for Leukemia drive, volunteers from The Beer Store, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 12R24 and Labatt partnered with consumers across Ontario to raise money.

“We are very appreciative of Labatt’s support over the years,” said Foster Brown, Vice President, Human Resources, The Beer Store, who personally thanked Labatt and its employees at the Returns for Leukemia gala. “Labatt has always been with us, every step of the way with our bottle drives, and again helped sponsor our Bottle Drive shirts. The Labatt logo was proudly emblazoned across the back of the shirts worn by all of our employees during the month of May to promote the drive. We are grateful to Labatt and to all of the Labatt employees who may have volunteered, donated their empties or promoted the drive with their friends.”

  
Beer Store customers were invited to donate the deposits they received for returning their beer, wine and spirit containers to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. To date, the five Returns for Leukemia drives have raised more than $3 million.

“2010 is the first year that donations have surpassed $1 million,” said Ted Moroz, president, The Beer Store. “This milestone is a testament to the generosity of Beer Store customers and the community commitment of Beer Store employees who volunteered their valuable personal time.”

Right now, there are 90,000 Canadians affected by a blood cancer and leukemia kills more Canadian children than any other disease.

“I want to extend a huge thank you to UFCW Local 12R24, The Beer Store and everyone who so generously donated their time and money,” said Nancy Allen, president, Canadian Operations, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, which relies on donations to fund life-saving research and support people with cancer. “The Returns for Leukemia bottle drive is making a significant difference in our ability to fulfill these goals!”

The first international trade union website using social networking tools – beerworkers.org - is online today. Its launch follows a successful conference last week for trade unionists representing workers in the world’s biggest beer companies: AB InBev, SAB Miller, Heineken and Carlsberg.

The ‘Big Beer’ conference organised by EFFAT with the support of its Global Federation, the IUF, and which also included participation from the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF) - was attended by over 100 key trade union officials from Europe, North America, South America, Africa & Asia. Delegates discussed the common challenges they face defending their jobs, their terms and conditions of employment and work/life balance in the face of outsourcing, cost cutting & the use of precarious employment. They agreed to use and promote the new website to help them develop their global strategies to combat these threats.

The website builds on the success of a UK based website - Drayman Unite - which has already demonstrated the potential that online communication has for trade unionists in the beer industry. EFFAT thinks that beerworkers.org can replicate and even surpass that success on a global scale by allowing all organised workers in ‘big beer’ - including those outsourced in logistics companies and other service providers - to exchange information and make common cause in pursuit of their goals.

EFFAT’s General-Secretary, Harald Wiedenhofer, said: “these new tools can really help to strengthen solidarity amongst organised beer workers, not only in Europe but throughout the world. This is good news for all the ordinary people working in the beer industry. The jet-setting multi-millionaires who make up the top management of these globalised companies should be aware that the days in which they can use national ‘divide and rule’ strategies to control their global workforce are fast coming to an end”.

USW Local 6500 is in the hometown fight of their lives. On Monday, March
22nd we are having a massive rally to show the solidarity and support
that our local has from our members, our community, our province, and
from around the world. There are 30 delegates from around the world
(Brazil, Germany, Australia, Geneva, Indonesia, Zambia, and more) who
have already committed to attending. Can I count on you to attend as
well? Can I count on you to share this message with everyone you know?

We are looking for community members, organizations, clubs, unions,
political groups, and community businesses to attend. Show up in large
numbers and bring your banners, your flags and your signs! We need your
help!

We need your help to show VALE Inco that we have the solidarity and the
strength of our brothers and sisters everywhere - from around the corner
to around the world. Our members have been fighting strong for 8 months.
Come to Sudbury and help us to stand strong and unblinking in the face
of VALE.

The Five Steps I need you to take:

1.Learn the facts about at FairDealNow.ca:
http://www.fairdealnow.ca/?page_id=100
2.Check out the video invite here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiXmE63ZT7I
3.Tell us you are coming: usw@uswsudbury.ca
4.Forward this email to everyone you know.
5.Print the posters and put them up in visible locations.

That’s Monday, March 22nd at 4:30 pm - Starting at 66 Brady (The new USW
Union Hall) in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

We Need Your Help!

A Living Wage Bylaw will reduce pressure on the budgets of social service agencies in the City as well produce more productive workers who don’t switch jobs as frequently. Implementing a Living Wage is part of a strategy for poverty reduction which would bring the wage of working people to $13.50 per hour, not an exorbitant amount. Those struggling workers, especially those with families, will then be able to purchase necessities without breaking the bank.

- Further, evidence from Los Angeles, as well as other cities with Living Wage bylaws shows no negative impact on business or employment levels but has shown real gains for low wage workers. This is what Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles had to say about the living wage at the launch of his Economic Action Plan, “Jobs create financial security, safe streets and bright futures for working families in our City,” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “The health of our economy depends on a steady supply of good jobs for local residents. With this six-point plan, we are on track to move 100,000 Angelenos into high quality jobs by July 2010.” The mayor’s goal is to place 100,000 workers into good jobs in a year (the launch took place in 2008).

- In Canada many large cities are currently exploring the impact of Living Wage policies in their communities. These communities include, Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto. Toronto currently maintains a well-established “fair wage” policy which strictly prohibits the city from conducting business with any contractors and suppliers who discriminate against their workers.

Ottawa ACORN has taken a bold step in ensuring that everyone gets a fair wage. “Living wage policies create equality and opportunity for full time workers and some sort of wage protection by implementing a floor level wage,” said ACORN leader Kat Fortin, former employee of Calian Technologies which receives contracts from the City of Ottawa.

SEIU supports The Living Wage Campaign and the efforts of our City Councilors who are working hard to get this policy implemented. The City of Ottawa should see this as a positive and future building initiative rather than a drain on city funds. As Nadia Willard of ACORN said,” A living wage benefits everyone”.

Sharleen Stewart is the Canadian International Vice- President of SEIU and President of SEIU Local 1.

For more information, please contact

SEIU Canada
Pat Chastang
National Representative, Media Relations
905 695 1203 ext. 227 or Cell: 416 709 0501
chastangp@seiu.ca
www.seiu.ca