Anchor Brewing Co. employees are unionizing

What retailer is pulling 315 today? Assuming they want to do any real volume they're going to be lucky to pull 15%. Another couple of years and 10% will take some work.

 

Do people who work there actually call the brewery Anchor Steam?

 

Up to the 1980s or so, the brewery went by a few different variations of the name (even a table tent from '08 for the Christmas Ale)

Wouldn't be surprised to find many SF locals (even brewery workers?) still use the older terms.

 

So what every happened on this? Are they still moving ahead or did this die? Curious how it plays out.....

 

A better incentive would be employee owned company by means of stock- Unions never work out well- Look at the American auto industry in the 70's and 80's. Found beer cans in the quarter panels of cars. Pride and craftsmanship were non-existent- The end product was sub standard and atrocious-

 

for example?

 

Yeah, but your post was like three whole sentences long and the example was all the way at the very end!

 

Some of the best and most iconic American cars of all time were built by Union labor in the 50s and 60s.

To say American cars in the 70s and 80s were bad - therefore unions are to blame is absurd logic. The leadership of those companies didn't adapt quickly enough (or really at all) to changing market conditions: new emissions and safety standards, higher oil prices, and changing consumer tastes. A lot of bad decisions were made at the top and that is where the bulk of the blame should be placed. I'm not saying the UAW was without any fault, but laying all of the blame on the union doesn't make sense.

Who do you blame when a non-unionized industry ends up in the toilet, like in the late 2000s bank crisis? Surely not the tellers.

 

Not to mention that the cars that JD Powers and the "quality" consumer groups were comparing the domestically-produced cars to were the German, Japanese and Swedish* brands which those companies built (at the time) in their own unionized plants in their home or other countries.

Vehicles built in the same plants using the same parts by the same workers, differing only by sheet metal cosmetics and badging were often rated by consumers differently because one had a domestic brand name and the other was an "Import".

(* UK and Italian? Ah, no so much).

 

@jesskidden
Many of the German vehicles today are still built in unionized factories in Germany. Same for the Japanese. Their US factories are not union.

@CheapHysterics

Your take on what happened with the US manufacturers is accurate. The only things I can add is they were late to just in time manufacturing, and also late to embrace statistical quality control and six sigma methods.

 

Can't remember the name at the moment but do recall reading a book that suggested the reason they were late was because at the end of WW II they effectively had no competition and could sell just about anything they made. (IIRC Deming had to go to Japan to get anyone to get anyone to take him seriously.)

As a friend of mine used to put it, after the Japanese "auto invasion" began it still took management in Detroit a while to realize that "Americans didn't want oil on their garage floor."

(Not unlike what happened to BMC during the period of rising demand for flavorful beers.)

 

The US manufacturers were busy making all the cars they could make. Why change? They were also insulated in Michigan, failed to see the changes on the coasts.

The Dr. Deming story was true.

The BMCs reactions to craft have been similar. I saw the equivalence a long time ago.

 

Those who lived through the 1973 oil embargo and resulting shortages and long lines, recall how unprepared we, as consumers, and the US auto industry were for the increased demand for fuel efficient cars. Not because of price, but gasoline was so hard to come by. The 400 HP V8 engines and land yachts were no longer the vehicles of choice. Enter the Toyota Corolla and Datsun pickups. This was all over politics and our support of Israel instead of the oil countries. We were blindsided by the "oil weapon". Unions or not, Detroit and the auto industry were changed forever. Nobody gave a hoot about gas prices until then. God forbid this scenario were to happen with beer. Who would stand in line for beer?

 

Yeah, of course, I did not mean to imply their factories currently in Germany or Japan (and, IIRC, most every country in which they assemble cars except the US) aren't still organized.

The two multinational industries, auto and brewing, are very different but do still share some aspects. In "macro" brewing and, maybe only to a slightly lesser extent but still a very important factor, vehicle manufacturing, computerization and automation advances have cut labor costs and, naturally, jobs. It is shocking to see how the number of brewing workers has gone down in the past 85 years or so in the post-Repeal brewing industry, when examined on a "barrels per worker" ratio.

The "easier" way for those sized-companies - the German, Japanese and Korean transplant assembly plants AND the MC's Coors plants in CO and VA (the former Miller plants remain union, under contracts with the Teamsters, Machinists or Autoworkers, depending on location), Yuengling in PA to remain non-union in the US is to offer pay and benefits equal to the unionized factories. Labor is a small percentage of the final cost of beer shipped out the door.

Important other union benefits and protections like work rules, job protection, seniority, anti-speed-up controls, worker input on jobs, safety on the factory floor, etc., are usually ignored by workers when voting in union elections --- ignored until they need them, and even those workers are typically a minority of the entire workforce. Hire a brand (new and young) workforce and pay is more important to them than medical and pension benefits.

Thus, the experiences and comparison of union/non-union shops in auto or brewing, are not really applicable to the situation at Anchor, it seems to me. Anchor is still "mom & pop" sized, even though currently owned by one of the world's largest brewing companies. I imagine labor costs in a small (and older/urban) brewery are still a bigger factor on their bottom line than AB or MC's. But, of course, the ILWU would not start out looking for parity with the AB or MC Teamster contracts - but the pay and conditions (relying on "part-time" employment to avoid benefits) at Anchor seem pretty dismal considering how well established the company is, regardless of its size.

I have wondered what the Teamsters have done, if anything, in relationship to the workers in the "captured/ex-craft" breweries AB's bought. Likely some of those purchases have increased job security in the "traditional" IBT-AB plants (GI beers brewed in NY or CO, for example). And AB, from what I recall, has instituted some improvements to working conditions in the captured crafts (after all, things like job safety can benefit the corporation, as well as workers), which can slow organization - but I'd guess their pay is still not close to the "$70/hour wages and benefits" of the macros.

 

When you read about that era of the US auto industry, the word hubris gets used a lot.

 

My comment was to clarify that certain products made by the manufacturers that have put factories in the US are still made in their home country. I have had people tell me that since they have a vehicle made by XYZ it was built in a non-union plant. Examples are Toyota, all Prius cars are built in one factory in Japan. BMW builds SUVs in the US, all cars are in Europe, and so on.

One thing I learned while working in Germany, is that all unionized businesses have 2 union reps on the Board of Directors. This is German law, so it would apply to breweries too if unionized.

 

I get the attempt at humor but I doubt you'll find many people here who think $12 twelve packs of Bud Light is a bargain.

Genesee would've been a good one though. They're unionized and I remember seeing 6 packs of Genny for $3.00.

"Damn unions, Genesee is $3 a sixer now!!!"


Anyway, I'm not a fan of unions myself. I've been in one, I've also helped organize another one (before we were all unceremoniously laid off). Totally irrelevant in most industries. They suck. I won't go into it much more than that...."time and place" and all that good stuff.

That being said though, I won't boycott a company just because of the existence of a workers union. If they wanna play that game that's their decision to make. As long as the product quality stays the same who gives a shit from a consumers point of view.