Anchor Brewing Co. employees are unionizing

No issues, thanks for posting.

 

Ugh. I gave up reading endless political discussion and helped myself to a fresh Anchor Steam, now in tall-boy cans. Cheers.

 

That's why bud and all those AB beers are so expensive.

 

Good idea, I'll be picking up some Anchor Steam this weekend to support the brewery, the workers, and get in on Flagship February at the same time. If the price has to increase on the future to support the workers making a fair wage, I'll still be buying then too. Cheers!

 

I've been in the beer industry for almost a decade, so I'm familiar with the profit margins. I don't understand your solution to the issue at hand though; we should fix the problem by giving up and just getting a different job? Putting aside the defeatist attitude, I'm sure you understand that job mobility isn't high these days, so that's not even a good solution.

As for your other point, most of us aren't in the brewing industry for the "cachet", we're pursuing something we're passionate about and enjoy for the creativity it affords us, while getting to make something others enjoy. We still deserve to make a livable wage regardless, and I'd much rather fight for that for myself and others like me then give up like you suggest.

 

So the implication is that companies pay workers the maximum they can possibly afford to pay them? That's not how you maximize profits, which is the goal of practically all companies.

Granted, Anchor/Sapporo isn't a bottomless pile of money. But to suggest they are maxed out and the company would fail if the cost of labor increased a few pennies per bottle is disingenuous.

 

I'm not sure who is talking about "jacking up" wages or even what "supercompetitive levels" means, but I will say it's weird to see someone who was just railing against the subsidization of unions to apparently be okay with craft brewer profits being functionally subsidized by employees lack of fair compensation.

As I'm fond of saying, if you can't afford to be in business and pay your workers a fair value for their labor, then you can't afford to be in business. It's always strange to me how your type are always so quick to tell workers that if they can't make enough money to live, then go find another job, but aren't nearly as eager to tell business owners if they can't make enough profits to survive, then go into another industry...

It's difficult to get too far into the realm of dictating what prices for a product should cost industrywide--especially in an industry like craft beer, where there is a ton of stratification of SKU types and perceived value (for example, look at Founders Solid Gold vs. something like Anchorage A Deal With The Devil). That said, there does seem to be a fair amount of pricing inefficiency in craft beer. The explosion of the secondary market hints at that fact.

 

Honest question. How are their sales? I haven't had an anchor beer in probably 5 years. I don't see it around often or enough really. What's to say they close up shop and hire all new workers if this union thing falls through? Are they brewing in the heart of SF?

The workers aren't inherently doing anything special. And it's ultra competitive out there. I can see wages go up, but their work force shrinks. Sales go down as prices rise and even more of the work force is lost. I don't see a positive end result for workers at this aging relic.

 

God---dam. You mean openly violate the National Labor Relations Act? The one that guarantees American workers “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection ..."

Sure, individual workers get fired for union activity, while the employer claims other reasons and it might takes years to fight that in court and they often lose, and, yeah, the use of replacement workers (scabs) takes place during strikes (NOT during organizing)--- but what you suggest Anchor to do is way beyond what even the most vicious anti-union companies do.

OH, yeah. MAGA. Make American workers Grovel Again....

 

It’s not a “dubious claim,” anyone’s who’s worked professionally in the industry knows most brewers are barely scraping by. I don’t understand why anyone would be against the idea of giving these guys the chance at a lower middle class existence..shame on them and their entitlement for wanting that..

 

Being an old Libertarian I don't fall into the "them vs us" camps. I simply want the brewery to thrive, pay the workers as much as it can while including them in profit sharing and ownership interests plans.

 

Without the girls in the bikinis

 

They are more than welcome to seek employment elsewhere. If the employees are truly compensated below market rate, they shouldn't have any trouble finding a better position....

 

Ah, you mean to Swedish Bikini team!?!

Cheers!

 

4-pack of KBS increases from $18 to $22 in a few years: "It's still a bargain for this quality of beer!"

6-pack of Anchor Steam (potentially) increases from $8 to $9 to provide health insurance and a wage increase for brewery workers: "F those guys! I'm done with them!"

 

Just saw tall boys of steam at the store when I was getting 1/2n1/2 and I had to pick one up. Solid beer and a solid price at 2.29 for 19 oz or so. I will definitely put some work in on those big boys once river days are back.

 

True, but like I said before, it's not like leaving to find a higher paying job in craft is an easy proposition, especially if you're living in a more rural area. Of course, there are plenty of breweries in the SF area but that doesn't mean there are many openings at any given time. The bigger issue is that the "market rate" average wages in the craft industry are already low for skilled labor, so I'm sure many of these people at Anchor are hoping that by unionizing, they can help not only themselves but others that come after them and hopefully encourage others to do the same, because I don't see many other ways that industry wages and benefits are going to become more livable.

 

Something this thread has made me think about is how odd it is that the most anti-union sentiments seem to be coming from people who are avowed capitalists, and yet there's really not much more capitalistic than unionizing. It's the employee end equivalent of merging with other companies to access economies of scale. Just some economic units attempting to maximize their profit.

 

!, As has been pointed out by others, the Nordic countries are NOT socialist. They have capitalist market economies with the government providing a large welfare component to their citizens through taxes.

2. There is nothing stopping anyone in this country from sending more than required to the Treasury department. You tax calculations are the minimum required by the IRS. If you want to make a voluntary contribution to the US government, you may do so by sending a separate payment to the Treasury via the Bureau of Fiscal Service with the notation that it be used to “reduce the debt held by the public”. You can also pay more by not taking deductions or credits allowed to you.

Anyone saying they "would be happy to contribute more" but don't, are simply posturing.

 

Interview with one of the Anchor workers trying to form a union:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/anchor-brewing-unionization-drive-craft-beer

Here’s a snip...
“We get told a lot that it’s an honor to work at Anchor Steam, and it absolutely is. I actually love working here, it’s one of the first jobs I’ve truly enjoyed.

“But at some point you look at how craft beer profits have positively soared, and how the wages in the industry have dropped, and you start to think that maybe we’re getting scammed. You start to understand that there wouldn’t be craft beer if it weren’t for us.”