[ad_1]
“Truckers make the beer, truckers make Anheuser-Busch successful, and our members deserve the best contract. That’s what we fought for and won today,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement Wednesday.
Brendan Whitworth, CEO of Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement that the company is “incredibly pleased to have reached a tentative agreement that continues to recognize the talent, dedication and hard work of our teams, while positioning the company for the long term.” success of the term. … As America’s leading brewer, we have the best people and provide the best jobs in the beer industry.”
Union members will now have the opportunity to review the contract and vote on whether to approve it. The new tentative agreement was unanimously recommended by the Teamsters negotiating committee. However, if members reject the deal, workers could still go on strike.
The Teamsters said the deal includes an $8 per hour pay increase over the life of the five-year contract, including an immediate $4 per hour increase during the first year. This equates to an average salary increase of 23 percent over the duration of the contract.
The deal also includes important job security protections for all union workers, the union said, a key demand for the Teamsters as the company had laid off union workers over the years. However, the union and the company did not specify the type of job security that workers would receive.
Under the contract, workers would receive a $2,500 confirmation bonus, increased pension contributions and the restoration of retirement benefits for current and retired members, the union said. And the company will end its two-tier health care plan, the union said, where some workers receive worse benefits.
The new contract comes amid a period of increased labor activism in the United States, fueled by a booming labor market and growing popularity of unions. In 2023, American workers led 33 major strikes, defined as those involving at least 1,000 workers, the most in more than two decades, according to Labor Department data released this month.
Unionized workers have been securing contracts with double-digit increases with strikes and even simple strike threats over the past year. About 340,000 UPS employees, who are also Teamsters members, won a new contract last year that some labor experts described as the best for workers in UPS history, including raises of nearly 50 percent over five years for workers. part time.
The Teamsters said Anheuser-Busch agreed to meet in Washington on Wednesday for the first time in weeks to try to reach a deal before Friday’s midnight strike deadline.
Later Wednesday, Teamsters leader O’Brien said in a statement that the company had submitted an amended offer that “continues to ignore many of the Teamsters’ key issues.” The parties reached a tentative agreement later that day when the company submitted another offer.
In December, thousands of Anheuser-Busch Teamsters members voted to authorize a strike, with 99 percent in favor.
Molson Coors Teamsters members in Fort Worth have also been on strike over wages since February 17.
Michael Silva, chief official of Teamsters Local 919, which represents about 500 Anheuser-Busch workers at its brewery in Houston, said this week that he had been particularly concerned about job security. Their facilities have been around for decades and provide employment to several generations of families, although they have lost union jobs over the years.
“Our numbers have slowly decreased. Some of that has to do with automation,” Silva said. “No one should be afraid of not having a job.”
As the brewing giant has automated and consolidated parts of its operations over the years, thousands of good-paying Teamsters jobs have been lost, labor and supply chain experts say, a deindustrialization process that may push local economies into recession. In 2022, Anheuser-Busch sold a distribution plant in Oakland, California, eliminating more than 140 Teamsters jobs.
Patrick Penfield, a professor of practice in supply chain management at Syracuse University, said Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian multinational brewing company that owns brewing operations in the United States, excels at cutting costs with new technologies. and automation.
“At Anheuser-Busch it’s all about efficiency and automation,” Penfield said. “They acquire companies, integrate them and then look at how they can become more efficient and do more with less… The question is ‘can we make the same amount of beer with fewer breweries?'”