James Boag’s Brewery workers in Launceston are reeling after a halving of beer production and redundancies were announced by major multinational beer company Lion Nathan today.

The sweeping changes include, for the first time, outsourcing production of Boag’s iconic brands to mainland breweries, as 14 brewery technicians’ roles (three of which are currently vacant), two middle management roles and two tradies are targeted for redundancy.

The changes at the brewery, first founded in 1881, involve cutting back production from two shifts to a day shift only, with future production in Launceston to be focused solely on the Tasmanian market.

Workers at the site now fear the historic brewery is being put on a path of total closure as Lion Nathan takes a “death by a thousand cuts” approach to the brewery’s production after an earlier round of redundancies in 2016.

“Lion Nathan has gone down the bean counter path of cutting jobs rather than considering what James Boag’s means to the Tasmanian community, Tasmanian workers and the Australian public,” Amy Brumby, Tasmanian Regional Co-ordinator for United Workers Union, said today.

“It threatens to rip the heart out of the place when the community loses a group of really skilled workers, and brands like James Boag’s Premium that the workers have built so proudly will effectively be outsourced to mainland breweries.

“It’s not good enough that the company has identified a restructure, yet it has not made clear how the redundancy process will operate.

“The community and the workers – many of whom have shown 15-plus years of loyalty – do not deserve some form of Hunger Games played out for the remaining jobs.”

A worker with the brewery, who cannot be named under Lion Nathan’s media policy, said: “The company knows that workers at the brewery have been incredibly willing to work hard to achieve the company’s goals – including working tirelessly during the pandemic.

“It’s now time for the company to show respect to its workers after all the years they have given to this place.”

Workers have voted against a July 23 date for a final decision, calling for the company to consult with workers within the next two weeks.

In the company timeline given to workers, the changes take effect on August 27.