Russia: Heineken Brewery union ends strike at talks with officials

The worker's union at Heineken Brewery in St. Petersburg ended an Italian strike during talks with brewery officials on Friday, Alexei Veleulov, chairman of the union, said in a statement, according to Interfax News Agency, May 4.

The brewery's workers said on April 13 that they were planning to hold an Italian strike, a method in which factory workers meticulously adhere to all instructions and regulations and do not work overtime. The workers are demanding a 30% increase in their salaries and an 8%-10% raise for occupational hazards.

Heineken's press service told Interfax that the union's demands would be considered within a month in accordance with Russian legislation.

Heineken owns ten breweries in various parts of Russia. Heineken began working in Russia in 2002, when it acquired St. Petersburg brewer Bravo International. In 2004 and 2005, the Dutch company acquired the Sobol brewery in Novosibirsk, the Shikhan brewery in Sterlitamak, the Volga brewery in Nizhny Novgorod, Patra in Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg's Stepan Razin, the Baikal brewery in Irkutsk, Amur-Pivo in Khabarovsk, and PIT with its breweries in Kaliningrad and the Orenburg region.