Teamsters Wary of Anheuser Deal
"I feel I've been let down by my own leaders," said John Adkins, Teamsters principal officer at the Jacksonville, Fla., brewery. "This is a concessionary contract, the worst contract in the world."
He and others said the contract offer, jointly announced Thursday by top Teamsters in Washington and leaders of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, differed little from two other versions that the nearly 8,000 members rejected last year.
The contract covers bottlers, distillers, truck drivers and mechanics at Anheuser-Busch's 12 U.S. breweries. Mail-in voting was expected to take about a month.
Chief brewery spokesman John Jacob said the latest offer concedes nothing on issues that are important to many union members. Mandatory overtime is still "in" but the seniority system, in many cases, is "out."
The main difference in the latest offer is that it will expire in 2004 instead of 2003, he said.
Another raise will be given in the extra year, bringing the average hourly wage to more than $24, with slightly more than that paid each hour for benefits.
All 16 local leaders met last week in North Carolina to discuss the contract, hammered out by management and the union's new negotiator, Jack Cipriani. He was chosen to take over the negotiations this spring by James Hoffa after Hoffa took over as head of the entire Teamsters union.
The leaders endorsed sending the package to another around of voting by a 9-7 margin.
Adkins said the vote was probably swayed by a survey that Teamsters international took recently of members. The survey was said to have found that the rank and file wanted another chance to vote on the last Anheuser-Busch contract. Adkins questioned the validity of the survey. Workers in St. Louis also said they either knew nothing of it or refused to participate because it wasn't clear who was behind it.
Jacob said the company had nothing to do with the survey, but he believed that workers wanted another chance to vote on the contract.
Cipriani acknowledged that the contract isn't the best, but that something had to be done "to stop the bleeding." Without a contract, people were losing their jobs and had nowhere but the courts to turn.
Despite what Jacob said, improvements were made on subcontracting, overtime and other key issues, Cipriani insisted. He wouldn't give details Friday but said workers would be made aware of them when the ballots are mailed to them in the next few weeks.
Workers said they want to see the entire contract.
"If this is as great as it is, I'd like someone to explain to me why," said Ken Ferkel of Imperial, Mo. He hasn't decided how he will vote but indicated that the contract would have to be better than the one implemented in fall to win his support.
Clay Fisk of House Springs, Mo., said he's not about to approve any concessions. With Anheuser-Busch being the biggest brewery in the world, with year after year of record profits, he doesn't see why he should.
"I don't feel like we have to go backward like the workers did at TWA," he said.
In addition to St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch operates breweries in Baldwinsville, N.Y.; Cartersville, Ga.; Columbus, Ohio; Fort Collins, Colo.; Houston; Jacksonville, Fla.; Los Angeles and Fairfield, Calif.; Merrimack, N.H.; Newark, N.J.; and Williamsburg, Va.
