SABMiller's true colours

"We are all workers" reads the first line.

This may be of interest, especially if you like Meantime beers, Carling, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Fosters, Grolsch, Miller, Coca Cola, Fanta - among many others.

Workers at Cervecería Nacional, Panama's beer and soft-drink subsidiary of global brewing corporation SABMiller, have been on indefinite strike since July 10. The workforce is represented by two unions who have worked together to produce joint proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement, but the employer has refused to deal with more than one union. It has also told the workforce to give up their collective bargaining rights, barred active reps from the workplace and withheld wages earned before the strike. It doesn't take a genius to work out that this is a thinly disguised attempt to divide and rule the workforce by an employer who doesn't want to work with unions at all.

The Meantime Brewing Company, a London craft brewery recently acquired by SABMiller, should note this display of true colours. As Woody Allen once said, "The lion will lay down with the lamb, but the lamb won't get much sleep."

What can we do? Well, there's more info here and if, like me, you don't agree with the company's actions, please sign the petition: I've noticed that bad international publicity sometimes does get results.