CUB may face beer shortage as dispute with union continues

Although the dispute between the company and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) drags on, CUB has dismissed a statement from the ETU, which claims that the brewer will now struggle to meet Christmas and summer stock demands.

To date, the brewer has survived the five-month long industrial dispute at its Abbotsford brewery in Melbourne, which began under the previous SABMiller leadership and was inherited by the new owner AB-InBev, by transporting beer from its Yatala brewery in Queensland and sourcing warehoused stock.

However, it was reported on 4 November 2016 that leaked documents from CUB revealed that the brewer is fighting to meet demand, a situation said “to be due to low production rates, skill shortages and excessive financial and people costs”.

ETU state secretary Troy Gray was quoted as saying that the leaked data “clearly shows the deception of the CUB management who have been insisting to us, the media, to the Fair Work Commission and ultimately to their shareholders, that the layoffs have not impacted production. We have no idea if the local management have even disclosed to the new owners the true impact of their irresponsible, excessively costly decision to sack the workers vital to their business.”