Labatt is owned by the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev. The products on the boycott list are:
- Stella Artois
- Stella Artois Light
- Becks
- Brahma
- Hoegaarden
- Leffe
- Staropromen
- Boddingtons
- Bass
- Lowenbrau
- Ozujsko Pivo
About 50 employees have been walking the picket line for 13 weeks. The workers are fighting for a fair collective agreement while Labatt is looking for big concessions. AB InBev has given workers no option but to fight against the elimination of rights ranging from unlimited temporary employees receiving no benefits to existing members having to help pay for medical and dental benefits for the first time.
AB InBev's impositions for the new collective bargaining agreement include the introduction of a two level wage system where two workers doing the same job are making as much as $9.00 Cdn. an hour difference in pay. As a consequence, the worker making less money will never have the chance to make the same wage as the older worker. Furthermore a performance-based wage scale is imposed on workers, which would effectively replace wage bargaining rights with arbitrary individual wage increases based on the goals solely set by the employer, with no input from the union.
At a news conference on June 7, NAPE and the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour officially launched a boycott in that province. Since then, NAPE's national sister union, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), representing over 340,000 workers across Canada, passed a resolution at their national Triennial Convention on June 16 calling on its members to support the boycott.
Workers and supporters of the boycott have been holding information pickets at numerous locations in St. John's, NL every day since the launch of the boycott asking the public for their support. The boycott campaign also consists of radio, web, and print ads. The reaction from the public has been very positive. The campaign's tagline is "Labatt's position is a cold one."
You can read more info about the campaign and send a message to management at the following link: http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1867.