John Williams, Cardiff Central Socialist Party
Hundreds of hospitality workers face losing their livelihoods after craft beer chain BrewDog collapsed into administration.
The company has been sold to a US drinks firm in a cut-price deal, with 38 bars set to close and around 484 workers losing their jobs. Many staff reportedly discovered the news through a rushed conference call, highlighting once again the contempt bosses have for the workers who built the brand and its profits.
Unite, a union which organises hospitality workers, has rightly condemned the disgraceful treatment of staff during the sale.
For years BrewDog cultivated an image as an ‘alternative’, anti-establishment company, marketing itself as different from the traditional corporate beer giants. But the mask has long since slipped. The company and its bosses have been repeatedly embroiled in scandals over workplace culture and the treatment of staff.
Now, when profits fall, BrewDog’s bosses are behaving just like any other capitalist employer – with workers thrown on the scrapheap.
Guarantee jobs
Unions must demand full transparency over the sale and fight for the best possible redundancy terms where job losses can’t immediately be prevented. But the workers’ movement should go further.
If profitable venues are being closed as part of corporate restructuring, they should be taken into public ownership to protect jobs, with workers and local communities able to run them under democratic control.
The closures also highlight the wider crisis across hospitality. Workers at Pizza Hut have faced threats of job losses and closures, while McDonald’s workers have organised against low pay, harassment scandals and unsafe workplaces.
Hospitality workers create the wealth. Instead of closures and attacks on conditions, the industry should be run in the interests of workers and communities, not profit-driven bosses.
- John Williams is standing for the LGBT+ seat in the Unite Executive elections as part of the Workers Unite slate
