Canada-wide beer can boycott supports factory workers on strike for 20 months against union-busting multinational Crown Holdings.
TORONTO, 14 May 2026 – This holiday weekend beer drinkers across Canada will pledge to buy their suds in bottles instead of cans, to support Toronto factory workers on strike for 20 months against U.S. manufacturing giant Crown Holdings.
“For many Canadians the Victoria Day long weekend unofficially marks the beginning of summer and heralds increased beer sales across the country,” noted Ken Neumann, National Director of the United Steelworkers (USW), which represents the striking Crown Holdings workers in Toronto.
“This holiday weekend is the perfect time for Canadians to toast solidarity and take our pledge to buy their beer in bottles, not cans,” said Neumann.
“The growing support for our national beer can boycott is critical to the working men and women who are standing up for fairness and decent jobs.”
The Canadian Labour Congress recently sanctioned a nationwide boycott of beer sold in cans manufactured by Crown Holdings.
Today the USW is launching a major push to promote the boycott on social media and with radio ads, inviting Canadians to pledge to buy their beer in bottles not cans.
“Facebook and Twitter users will find shareable video and images – including a cheeky message featuring Queen Victoria supporting the boycott,” said Neumann. “We know the message will resonate with Canadians who believe in fairness and that it will demonstrate to Crown Holdings that Canadians don’t stand for its attacks on workers.”
U.S.-based Crown provoked the strike at its Toronto factory in September 2013, by demanding massive concessions from workers, even though they were recognized for operating the company’s top plant in North America.
For the last 20 months Crown has refused to negotiate a fair settlement, instead making increasingly worse offers while recruiting replacement workers to try to break the strike.
The Ontario government announced an industrial inquiry into the labour dispute in March, but the process has moved at an excruciatingly slow pace and the striking workers are on the verge of giving up hope in the Liberal government.
The workers have been holding vigils every other day outside the Ontario Ministry of Labour in Toronto, urging action from Premier Kathleen Wynne and Labour Minister Kevin Flynn. The workers are asking the government to take the extraordinary step of ordering binding arbitration if the industrial inquiry fails to bring about a resolution.
An online petition urging Wynne and Flynn to support the workers has garnered over 1,400 signatures in the last two days.
For more information, see www.bottlesnotcans.ca.
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For more information, contact:
Ken Neumann, USW National Director, 416-544-5951
Joe Drexler, USW Strategic Campaigns, 416-544-6009, 416-434-7907, [email protected]
Bob Gallagher, USW Communications, 416-544-5966, 416-434-2221, [email protected]