Truck Drivers Join Carlsberg Brewery Strike
As many as 800 workers at Denmark’s Carlsberg brewery walked off the job yesterday, after management restricted beer drinking to lunch hours and the company cafeteria. Previously, workers had access to beer around their work sites, and could drink at their own discretion. By now you’re probably either Googling “Carlsberg job openings” or wondering what the car angle to this story is. Actually, it’s more of a truck angle. Take it away, Associated Press [via Google]:
Carlsberg’s truck drivers joined the strike in sympathy — even thought they are exempt from the new rules, [Carlsberg spokesman Jens] Bekke said. The truck drivers are permitted to bring three beers from the canteen because they often don’t have time to have lunch there.
The trucks have alcohol ignition locks preventing the drivers from driving drunk, he added.
How’s your driving after three beers? Before you answer that, consider that not all Carlsberg delivery vehicles are created equal…
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Most Danish companies do not pay for the employees' lunch break, which means that you are actually not working while lunching. The court decided that you are allowed to drink in your free time, but of course you must still be able to do your job. Just a few years ago Carlsberg still delivered beer to pubs and restaurants on "Strøget" (a central pedestrian street) by horse carriage. That way the transportation of beer wasn't restricted to certain hours of the day, and the drivers weren't restricted by drunk-driving laws.
In the mid-eighties I lived in Denmark for a month when I was a teenager. At that time I marveled at how many brands of good beer there were, and how relaxed the Danes were about drinking it. It seemed like a great beer country (meaning, a country that made great beer and knew how to enjoy it sensibly). I hope it still is; this article gives me hope.