A pub crawl will be held on the Far South Coast this weekend to protest a major brewery’s decision to sack its workers.
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In June, Carlton United Breweries (CUB) sacked 55 maintenance workers in Melbourne before being inviting them to reapply for their old jobs on individual contracts for a reported 65 per cent wage cut.
On Saturday, December 3, Far South Coast union member Alison Sexton-Green and previous federal Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro Tamara Ryan will hold a pub crawl from Bermagui to Eden in solidarity with the #BoycottCUB movement and to raise awareness of the ABCC legislation passed this week.
It will start at 12pm at the Bermagui Beach Hotel then visit pubs in Cobargo, Bega, Candelo and Merimbula on its way south.
Ms Sexton-Green said there were about 20 locals, union members and supporters turning up to help out and others were welcome.
“As supporters of the CUB55, we want talk to locals and publicans about this campaign,” she said.
“We are asking people to join us in boycotting all CUB products until the CUB55 are reinstated.
"These workers, who have been on the picket line for around 170 days now, have newborn babies, expectant partners and living expenses they're struggling to pay in the lead up to Christmas.”
CUB makes some of the nation's best-selling beer brands, including Carlton Draught, Carlton Dry, VB, Crown Lager and Pure Blonde, as well as Mercury and Strongbow ciders.
Ms Ryan said people and pubs were standing in solidarity with not only those 55 workers, but with workers the nation over.
“People are realising that big corporates are very prepared to put profit before people, so their job could be next,” she said.
"Insecure, casualised and unsafe work situations are being normalised.
“This will increase underemployment and unemployment in the Bega Valley, as big business and conservative governments work together to undermine our living standards.
“We say that's not acceptable.”
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