Daniel, Teesside Socialist Party and Unite Hospitality
‘Do as we say not as we do’ – this appears to be the order of the day from the bosses at Brewdog, as rebellion grows in Brewdog bars from London to Aberdeen.
Months ago, Brewdog bosses abandoned their pledge to pay their employees at least the ‘real living wage’ (slightly higher than the national minimum wage), causing outcry from workers.
It is with this background that the latest round of controversy has emerged. It was kick-started by Brewdog’s shameful sacking of an Asian worker at one of its London bars, after they complained about the presence of the racist English Defence League (EDL) in the bar.
Unite Hospitality’s subsequent social media exposure of this sacking reached tens of thousands of people on X (formerly Twitter) alone. Scores of workers from eleven Brewdog bars have submitted a collective formal grievance, at the time of writing. All but ignored by CEO James Watt, apart from a weak self-justification sent out to staff, spiced at the end by some good old-fashioned victim blaming!
The time is now for a unionisation drive within Brewdog, alongside a campaign to win the sacked worker her job back. This must also be followed by a fight to end the bullying and misogyny in the company which has been reported by many workers, among other things. Only with militant, fighting trade unions can these practices be made memories, rather than the grim realities that they currently are.
