When Business is Booming cut workers

What does a massive global corporation do when they have made profits? Well you fire 10% of your workforce division in Europe. This statement by itself is quite loaded and is probably what every Belgian union worker for AB InBev is shouting outside the breweries in Leuven. However it does not encompass the whole situation. In reality AB InBev may have made profit in the third quarter of last year, but their sales have dropped 20% in the last eight years. The corporation also has massive debt after purchasing Anheuser-Busch in the middle of 2008. Then added on their sales in two burgeoning markets of Brazil and Russia have declined once the global recession started to hit.

These facts may help AB Inbev not too look like the evil corporation taking jobs away during a bad economy. Yet at the same time Belgium is known for beer and by cutting these workers it can make the country itself look bad and the image of Belgian beer potentially. This corporation can also calls its history to Leuven all the way back too 1366. All this information is nice and may be used as fodder for the Belgian Union workers, but it doesn't have any affect on making more money for Ab Inbev.

The union right now is hoping to keep some jobs, but they don't have any backing from the government or even from the media. They are basically at the whim of AB Inbev and what they want to do. The union could have tried to entice the media into their cause, but after workers kidnapped Management in Jupille, Belgium for 11 hours their image became a little tainted. Not only have they kidnapped management at one location, but at the AB Inbev headquarters they burned crates as a protest. Overall it seems like the union workers really need a crisis communication advisor, but in the end jobs will still be loss and there isn't much they can do about it.