Posted: September 8 2009

For the first time in over 50 years strike action has been taken by workers at the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottlers Corporation recently after the company announced plans to reduce its workforce in Ireland by 130.Following a breakdown in talks between Coca-Cola HBC executives and SIPTU, some 20 to 30 pickets have been placed on Coca-Cola’s depots in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Tipperary and Tuam and  are to remain in place until the company agrees to further talks via the Labour Relations Commission or through the Labour Court, according to SIPTU National Industrial Secretary Gerry McCormack.

SIPTU has also decided to escalate this dispute by engaging in an ongoing campaign across the island of Ireland to seek the support of the general public.

“We are appalled at the manner in which a multi-billion euro global company is treating 130 Irish workers,” said Gerry McCormack, adding that, “This new management’s attitude to industrial relations in the company and towards the institutions of the Irish State is a breach of all previous agreements which have served both parties very well for over 50 years.”

He told Drinks Industry Ireland, “They are not prepared to deal with any other item than redundancies or sub-contracting and this is in breach of the Industrial relations procedures”.Earlier, he’d stated, "Having agreed initially to attend the LRC and recognise SIPTU's position on a number of issues, Coca Cola HBC has now stated that it is only willing to talk about transferring our members’ jobs to third party operators and redundancies.”However Coca-Cola HBC’s Managing Director Gokhan Bilgic denied this, stating, ““We are extremely surprised by the union's claim, as we entered into immediate consultation with our employees and trade union representatives at the start of June and at the union's request, a number of alternative options to full outsourcing were examined and analysed to determine if a suitable alternative existed.“During this process the union's participation was essential, but regrettably they were unwilling to consider options put forward by the Company.”

A June review had found that the most viable solution identified was to fully outsource logistical services to expert Irish third party providers (see Drinks Industry Ireland, June issue).  Much of the company's distribution operation is already managed in this way.  "To facilitate a smooth transition for everyone we have offered our employees a significant package of six weeks per year of service up to €125,000 or the option to transfer to the third party logistic providers selected".

At the time of going to press, the 130 jobs were being outsourced to sub-contractors across the company’s distribution and warehousing operation.

SIPTU has stated that the three private sub-contractor companies are offering affected workers new employment at “greatly disimproved pay and working conditions and containing threats of redundancy”.This has been denied by the company which stated, “Despite Union claims the terms and conditions of employees who transfer would be fully protected under the Transfer of Undertaking regulations”.

Coca-Cola Hellenic reported net profits down four per cent for H1 of 2009.

The company, which now employs 1,120 people between Coca-Cola HBC and Coca-Cola Bottlers Ulster, stated that the strike action “will not affect business continuity” but it has indicated that it is prepared to re-enter talks with the union.