by Keith Richmond
Twenty thousand distillery workers and their supporters took to the streets of Kilmarnock at the weekend to protest at Diageo’s decision to put 900 people on the dole.
Bosses at the multinational drinks company – which owns brands such as Bailey’s, Gordon’s, Captain Morgan, José Cuervo, Smirnoff, Dom Perignon, Guinness and Red Stripe – want to close the Johnnie Walker factory at Kilmarnock as well as plants at Port Dundas, Hurlford, Shieldhall and Elgin. The company says closing Kilmarnock’s biggest employer is “the best plan for the future of the firm”.
But workers from the company, which has been blending whisky for 189 years, voiced their defiance.
Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of Unite, said: “These are job cuts driven by one thing only – greed. This is a company drunk on greed. It is making mega profits – more than £2 billion last year – and it wants still more.
“It is the greed of a chief executive paid £5 million last year who is looking to fund next year’s bonus out of the hides of working men and women here in Scotland. Well, we have news for Diageo. The days of ‘greed is good’ are over.”
Des Browne, Labour MP for Kilmarnock and Loudon, said: “We have a message for Diageo. You have got this wrong. You have underestimated the relationship between this community and Scotland and your industry. Think again.”
