Beer drinkers in Canada’s most populous province are being asked to buy their beer in bottles not cans this weekend. The request comes from striking workers at Toronto’s Crown Holdings can producer in a statement released Friday (December 12). The statement urges drinkers “to support working families under attack this holiday season by the world’s largest beer can maker.”

Members of the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9176 have been on strike since September. 2013 refusing huge concessions, including a demand to accept a 42 per cent wage cut for new young hires at the company,

“Consumers can help send a strong message to this company during the holiday season. By buying bottled beer rather than scab cans, they can help working families get a fair deal to end this dispute,” said USW Ontario Director Marty Warren, in the Friday statement.

Last month Crown shut down its last manufacturing plant in the Montreal region. The union points out that now cans will no longer be manufactured by unionized workers anywhere in Canada.

The cans now in use are being made by strikebreakers at the company’s Toronto location.

More information:

United Steelworkers press release – Steelworkers Ask Beer Drinkers to Share Holiday Spirit – here

United Steelworkers press release – Boycott Beer in Cans: Quebec Steelworkers – here

Crown Holdings Inc website – www.crowncork.com

rabble.ca – Three reasons 120 striking Toronto workers are making global waves – here

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