Teamsters Locals Rap Anheuser Deal

The deal Teamsters officials cut with Anheuser-Busch June 24 is getting a less than bubbly response from local union leaders and their rank-and-file members.

It is the third contract negotiated under the leadership of President James P. Hoffa – and the second to get mixed reviews.

The five-year contract covers 8,000 Teamsters at 12 breweries nationwide, and comes after nearly two years of often bitter contention between the company and union representatives.

The tentative agreement, which membership is expected to vote on this month, is similar, all parties concede, to the one imposed by Anheuser-Busch on its Teamster employees last fall after they had twice rejected it.

“It’s probably one of the worst contracts that has ever been negotiated in the history of the Teamsters,” said John Adkins, a Teamsters official at the Jacksonville, Fla., local. “It’s all concessionary. As far as I’m concerned, we will never take this contract.”

Adkins said that most of the other 15 locals felt the same way. Still, it will be difficult, he said, to convince the rank and file to vote against it after fighting so long for a good contract. Spirits, he said, are flagging.

The chief differences from the two earlier contracts are the length – five years instead of four – and a promise on the part of the St. Louis-based brewery to keep all 12 of its breweries open for the life of the contract.

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