Teamsters-Anheuser Deal Unsettled

Workers have ratified a five-year national agreement with Anheuser-Busch, but union officials and company management are butting heads over whether or not this means a contract is in place.

Teamsters members at 16 locals nationwide voted 59% to 41% in approving the pact Aug. 7, but workers at six of the company’s 12 breweries rejected local contract supplements. The Teamsters union wants the national contract ratification to stand on its own and negotiate the supplements separately, but Anheuser-Busch said it is all or nothing.

"The national leadership has chosen the path of reasonableness," said John E. Jacob, the brewing company’s executive vice president and chief communications officer. "However, some local business agents have chosen to continue to distort facts and deceive their members for reasons only they know."

Workers rejected local supplements in St. Louis; Cartersville, Ga.; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Jacksonville, Fla. Some locals at plants in Newark, N.J., and Los Angeles rejected the contract supplements, while others approved them.

The points of contention vary with each local but are said to include such issues as work hours, overtime and subcontracting.

"As far as the union is concerned, the national master agreement has passed," said Teamsters spokesman Bret Caldwell. "We have to renegotiate those supplements with Anheuser-Busch. It’s not going to be an easy task."

The Teamsters have said strikes are possible if the contract is rejected by its membership.

"If the union representatives have something new they can do to get agreements on the remaining local supplements, they should let us know. Otherwise, our assumption is that this is the final statement from those local unions on those agreements," Jacobs said.