Sao Paulo - 4067 Bean counters from a Sao Paulo bean packing factory are calling on comrades throughout the country to come out on strike in support of their impending redundancy.

Factory owners have decided to dispense of human bean counters, who are being replaced by bean counting robots; or more precisely, mechanical arms which weigh the beans instead of counting them.

Bruno ¨Beany¨ Beanzinho 62, a bean counter union representative, said today.

¨This is a catastrophe for thousands of bean counters and their families. Some of us have been bean counters since the age of 5; counting beans is a way of life for us - Many of my friends are already talking about killing themselves, there's just no point in carrying on without beans.¨

¨One factory militant, Felipe ¨Farty¨ Feijoada, 48, said.

¨If the sons of bitches think they can take away generations of jobs and tradition, they can furk-off - We are not having any of it.¨

The latest twist in this bean counters saga is that British Bean King; Rowbean Atkinson is reportedly due to arrive in Sao Paulo by the end of the week to drive the job saving campaign throughout Latin America.

From his London Headquarters, King Bean, aka Mr Bean, told reporters (through an interpreter).

¨All my life, people have taken the piss out of me and if them rich Brazilian factory owners think they can take the piss out of the thousands of Brazilian bean counters, they can furk-off¨

The interpreter went on:

¨We have already done some testing and discovered that the proposed robot arms they will use can't furking count - We randomly tested 100 bags of beans and only 4 bags had the correct number of beans.

¨He continued frothing at the mouth..

¨ For the past 250 furking years, Brazilian housewives have had 625 beans in their bags and they won't be furking happy with 624.¨