Union Rep Blames Craft Beer “Fad” for Molson Vancouver Layoffs

VANCOUVER, BC – Metro Vancouver reports that the recent layoffs of roughly 10% of the workforce at the Molson Coors facility in Vancouver is being partly blamed on the increasing popularity of craft beer, with a union rep calling it a “fad” that he doesn’t see lasting.

Gerry Bergunder, business agent for Brewery Winery & Distillery Workers Union Local 300, tells the paper that he expects the bottle line workers who have been laid off will be back to work soon, explaining that “there has been a decline in sales” of Molson products due to the dramatic increase in craft beer sales in British Columbia, but adding that “we look at these as fads. It happened with Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice – they become popular and then they fade out.”

To provide a counterpoint to this statement, Metro reached out to Ken Beattie, executive director of the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, who noted that the pendulum swing that Bergunder is hoping for is unlikely to happen. “People are changing their tastes,” he says. “I don’t think this is a trend and I don’t think the bubble’s going to burst anytime soon.”