Belgium: Thousands of InBev workers protest job cuts by beer giant

About 2,000 European workers of the InBev beer giant demonstrated Tuesday, March 28 against plans to close breweries and cut the workforce on the continent, Associated Press communicated on March 28. Unions are seeking employment guarantees in Belgium, InBev's historical home, and the rest of Europe after the Belgo-Brazilian company announced hundreds of job cuts over the past months.

The company said three of its four plants in Belgium were not operating Tuesday and the fourth was working with a limited capacity. Normal production was expected to resume Tuesday evening.

"Enough is enough, stop the madness of job cuts," union representative Hugo Coosemans said during the march outside InBev headquarters in Leuven, close to Brussels. Delegations from several other west European nations joined the local protesters.

In a response to the demonstration, the management of InBev SA invited the unions to a meeting to discuss its intentions. "It has become necessary for InBev to adapt the size and structure of its organization to take into account the declining and increasingly difficult beer market in Western Europe," said Stefan Descheemaeker, InBev's Zone President Western Europe of InBev.
He said in a statement better cost controls would spur innovation and growth. "This will result in difficult but necessary changes," said, adding it would eventually profit the 12,000 employees in the region. Unions were especially angry InBev was cutting back while it was still reaping big profits.

Last month, InBev announced a 26 percent increase in 2005 net profit but said fewer sales of beer and soft drinks in Europe and North America undermined strong growth in the rest of the world. InBev has announced a reorganization that will cut 360 jobs in five European countries and the closure of a Czech brewery, adding to job cuts in France and Belgium announced late last year.

Unions were all insisting that InBev clarifies its future strategy, fearing more job cuts could be further down the road. The company said it that it faces challenges in selling more beer in Western Europe and North America, signaling that any profit growth would come from slimming down operations.

Western Europe is top of the list for job cuts as the company consolidates its financial operations into a single center in Hungary and support services into a new Czech base. The company said it will create 295 jobs at the new back office centers in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

This will see 149 finance jobs will disappear in Belgium with another 125 going from Germany. Other cuts are likely in the second half of 2006 as other European countries are added to the plan.

InBev has already said it will shut down two Belgian plants, including the Hoegaarden brewery where it makes the popular light beer of the same name.

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