Splinter: Craft Beer's Moral High Ground Doesn't Apply To Its Workers

I see jesskidden already laid out the facts regarding MillerCoors, so no need to address that. It can all be pretty confusing, and I find myself having to fact check and re-read articles to get a refresher sometimes too. Here's my issue though: if corporate consolidation is your primary concern, where do you draw the line? A-B Inbev? MillerCoors? Heineken? Constellation? Mahou-San Miguel? North American Breweries? United Breweries Group? Duvel Moortgat? Artisanal Brewing Ventures? Are some corporations better than others? What exactly are the ill effects of corporate consolidation/corporations that you are worried about?

Of the companies listed above, a couple are allowed to use the seal. The rest are not. Also consider that there are a ton of independently owned craft breweries out there that choose not to use the seal. Could that stand to hurt their market perception/sales? Then there's all the independently owned breweries tied up with private equity too . . .

Considering all this, what does the seal actually tell consumers? I think it does more harm than good, and reeks of hypocrisy. It's great to have a set of standards for what you buy/consume, but if you really care you will always need to do your own homework anyway.

 

Most people I know are more interested in large price tags than they are fine print. I don't think the seal does any harm but if you know enough to know what it means then you already know enough not to need it.

 

I don't draw a line in the sand about any of it and I think the number of people who do is probably small. Sometimes because it's impossible (there are no independent companies I can use to access the internet) and sometimes because I don't really care that much about a particular sector (as I said, I don't feel super strongly about beer ownership per se in the scheme of things).

But you asked why anyone should care who owns what and I gave you my answer. To get into why corporate consolidation at the level we're now seeing is "bad" would bring us way beyond the scope of this message board.

I don't necessarily disagree with what you say about the "independent seal", but I can't say I understand why some people seem to want the BA to be some sort of disinterested arbiter of truth and justice. They're a trade organization, and they're going to do stuff that they think benefits their members from a business standpoint. What does slapping "America" on your cans when you are owned by a European company tell anyone? Does that reek of hypocrisy? When you get down to it that's all the BA is trying to do, carve out their own niche of consumer identification and loyalty.

I think it's good that people hold craft beer's feet to the fire here and don't give them a free pass, but sometimes it feels like we're giving more of a pass to those with the actual money and power who need that pass the least. That's another thing I think there's too much of in this country at present.

 

Thanks for the explanation but I was mostly just trying to make a joke about how complicated it all is . The Wikipedia page on this made my eyes glaze over.

ETA: And sorry to bring your name into it. I merely meant it in a complementary sense that you are the resident expert who always tries to straighten all these sorts of things out for us.

 

I agree with the sentiment of what you're saying here, but EVERYONE'S feet need to be held to the fire and NOBODY should get a pass EVER. People should be way more interested in the truth instead of simply hearing ideas that echo their own. If people only realized that rarely is a situation good v. evil, they would look into every scenario with more skeptical eyes. People have been programmed to believe that the world works like it does in the movies or on TV, when it almost never does.

 

Definitely agree on part of that and, from this board's perspective, it's probably a good thing that we scrutinize craft more closely since that's our focus and we don't want to fall blind to the faults in the thing we're passionate about.

But here's where we might disagree on the larger picture. Power matters. Going after the less powerful more vigorously than those with more power is how we end up with petty thieves in prison and white collar criminals slapped on the wrist. As I said, I'm not personally equating the beer world with that level of dichotomy because I don't think anyone in the game is that bad of an actor. But power still matters to the equation.

I don't particularly care that InBev wraps itself in the flag and the military of the most powerful nation on the planet. But if pressed, I care about that more than I care about whether a relatively small trade organization is putting an "independently made" seal on their beers.

 

It is definitely a bad look when you have people saying "EVERYTHING CRAFT BEER DOES IS AWESOME BECAUSE THEY ARE CRAFT BEER!!!!!"

Knowing the facts of any situation can only benefit the consumer. Different people give companies money for different reasons. I tend to lean towards those who provide the best quality, most availability, and best selection at the most reasonable price point. Others give money to companies that are local or that occupy some other niche. This Macro v. Craft debate is the classic Walmart/Home Depot/Publix/etc v. mom & pop. There are benefits and consequences to buying things from either place. As long as you know what those are, you should be OK. If not, well, not so much.

Again, knowing why you are making the decisions that you are is the most important part of this equation. You seem to be aware of those motivations. Many are not.

 

I am not sure union representation or more frequent OSHA visits or more automated big beer systems would have prevented this injury to a contractor at Trillium. It is also possible that all those factors would have prevented this. What is certain is this didn't happen at big beer it happened at Trillium, and shows how dangerous small beer brewing can be.
http://www.wcvb.com/article/man-suf...ssachusetts-trillium-brewing-company/21087945

 

And protect lazy workers who are also paying their dues. Because the biggest concern is paying those dues.

 

As soon as I read about that accident at trillium I thought of this article. I work in industry, for a large company, and they're health and safety daft. Sometimes it feels excessive and constraining but then you hear about something like that happening. We'll obviously need to wait to hear what OSHA say of course, but I feel like something like that is unlikely to have happened at my work. For any non-routine work being carried out we have to fill out a "Safe Work Permit". Half the time they are completely common sense and a bit frivolous but they would have highlighted the danger posed by a nearby tank of boiling liquid and required some sort of safety measure be put in place before work could be signed off to begin.

 

In my opinion you can never be too safe (i.e., a conscientious safety program). Even in the case of having conscientious safety programs accidents still occur. Hopefully with these conscientious safety programs in place the number of accidents and the severity of accidents are lessened.

While I was in college I worked during the summer in a factory and they had a HUGE sign when you entered the factory floor: "It has been x days since the last accident". A part of a conscientious safety program (a significant part in my opinion) is just constantly re-enforcing in the employees' minds the need for constant vigilance.

Cheers!

 

Companies still have wording in the contracts to allow removal of workers who don't meet whatever production numbers or quality that's agreed upon. That management is also too lazy to write a person up 3 times and fire them. The union makes managment fire people through reasonable steps, but most companies just throw their hands up and cry about it rather than work their angle of the contract.

 

I've worked the gamut in my career from a place that openly flaunted OSHA rules to where I am now where we seem a bit OCD about safety. I've witnessed injuries in both cases, even as our safety program where I work now continues to be strengthened. Some things that we've had to do seem impractical from my common sense point of view (what do you mean that stair rail is 2 inches too short...). But when I contrast that with people's proclivity for doing the unexpected, make an innocent mistake, or do the absolutely stupid thing plus the fact that I don't want my name in a lawsuit if they get hurt? I'm 1000% on board - our EHS folks can get as damned OCD and anal as they want to about safety. Safe work, hot work (welding, not boiling wort), confined space entry permits, fork lift warning lights, roof tethers, electrical lock out/tag out and more - all help us keep a safe work environment. And the training never ends - you are only as good as your weakest link and that is the truth. If people aren't trained and have safety engrained in how they work (ie, part of the culture), it becomes that much more difficult to maintain.

I've said it before, but I shake my head sometimes watching what goes on in a smallish and sometimes even a bigger brewery with regard to food safety/security and worker safety. It seems a pretty glaring contrast between what we through in in the food industry versus what I see in many breweries.

How unionizing helps this specific issue I don't know. I know our unionized plants have accepted safety training as a way of life just the same as our non-union shops. I've been here long enough to remember the days when the unions were antagonistic, and did not want everybody equally trained - I'm thinking that is not a helpful attitude. I think with any of these "craft industries" part of the issue is education - you don't know what you don't know - and I believe a lot of of smaller breweries (or bakeries, butcher shops, food entrepreneurs, etc) and even some mid to large just don't have the thought process in place that their operation is now industrial. Maybe it doesn't occur to somebody recently removed from a cooler mash tun, ten gallon pot/soup spoon boil kettle, and five gallon plastic bucket fermenters that a person should not be reaching into or climbing inside a tank unless the steam and agitator are locked out. Or that a confined space could mean insufficient oxygen. I see pictures of people in mash tanks pretty frequently - who knows if the safety measures are in place?

Maybe the Brewers' Association could provide some service here with training programs for brewery owners and production folks - maybe they do already - rather than providing a little glyph to put on a label. If they already do so, kudos. Or hook the small guys up with the big guys so they can learn the ropes. Seems better than pissing over the fence at each other about the size of the brewery.

 

Larry (@LeRose) I am in complete agreement with your post.

Permit me to reply with a few comments:

I completely agree that a critical component of a conscientious safety program is continual training/education. I would also add the nuance of conscientious monitoring as part of this program. To my mind the need for every employee to be properly trained and monitored is not only for their personal safety but for everybody else around them safety. I have worked with more than my fair share of knuckleheads and they can injure/kill me just as readily as themselves. A factory/brewery is no place for half-measures IMO.

I personally was never a member of a union and my interactions with union folks was such that I never got to learn what the 'attitude' of the unions were as regards worker safety. I would like to believe that the safety of their members was (is) a high priority but I just don't have any experience in this regard to offer up an opinion in this specific matter. All of the training I received in my various jobs as regards worker safety was company mandated with zero purview as whether the unions encouraged/participated in the conduct of these practices.

It is my understanding that the Brewers Association does 'something' as regards safety in breweries but to inform their members with no specific 'follow-up' in incomplete from my perspective. In post #110 I stated:

"If they were to implement a seal which would detail that a brewery implemented and maintained (with periodic independent inspections) a Brewers Association worker safety standard then I would be influenced into supporting (i.e., purchasing) those beers."

To leave this post on a more light hearted note:

I used to watch South Park regularly. The had a character which was the shop teacher and his frequent saying was "Stop screwing around".

As it comes to brewery worker safety we collectively should all "Stop screwing around".

Cheers!

 

There's much more going on at the BA than just an optional glyph on the label for members who choose to make use of it.

A version of Safety Training (as well as a variety of other service programs) is offered as a service to members who choose to take advantage of it:

https://www.brewersassociation.org/best-practices/safety/free-online-brewery-safety-training/

 

Thanks for pointing that out, Tom.

 

Larry (@LeRose), from the Brewers Association website:

"The Brewers Association Brewery Safety Training serves as one piece in a comprehensive safety training in your brewery."

I agree with that statement: it is indeed "one piece".

Cheers!

 

And while it’s only “one piece”, larger brewers (like Coors, if you get my drift) could add volumes of additional practical safety info, much like they did with the Draught Quality Manual.

Oh wait, they’re the bad guys...

Seems like a shame to have to re-invent the wheel all across the nation.

 

Your point is well taken in that the BMC companies have great safety programs in place. This expertise would indeed be the optimum source of information for putting together a conscientious brewery safety program.

I suspect that if the Brewers Association contacted their members of AB, MillerCoors, etc. to provide information for a conscientious brewery safety program they would be willing to share this information. Nobody wants brewery workers to get injured so I am confident that AB, MillerCoors would cooperate here if asked.

Cheers!

 

While I agree on all points wholeheartedly, it might behoove the big guys to agree to toning down the rhetoric regarding indie brewers in exchange for 100 years of experience.

I’m just trying to broker something good for the entire industry here.