Hard Times for Hard Liquor

(London, England) The London-based spirits company, Diageo PLC, makers of Johnnie Walker Scotch, Smirnoff vodka and Guinness stout, announced lower-than-expected earnings this past week and blamed it on the recession and the credit crunch.

To cut costs, Diageo is closing the Port Dundas distillery in Glasgow and the Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock. Workers are upset at the news of job losses -- 700 workers at Kilmarnock, 140 at the Port Dundas distillery and 30 at a bottling plant in Shieldhall. Mass meetings have been scheduled and there has been discussion of a strike.

Notably, Diageo is considered a generous employer in the UK because of high pay and the practice of giving employees a case of Johnnie Walker Black Label at Christmas.