Are closures and and wage cuts coming?
Teamsters worried about foreign buyout of Anheuser-Busch
no impact on union jobs.
By KEVIN MADDEN
But the Teamsters are skeptical.
The St. Louis Labor Tribune
“After closely studying InBev’s
and Press Associates
corporate history and buyout offer,”
ST. LOUIS — The Teamsters
the Teamsters are concerned with
Union — which represents 7,000
safeguarding “the unique legacy of
workers at St. Louis-based Anheuser-
Anheuser-Busch, a proud union com-
Busch’s 12 breweries nationwide —
pany and
fear a buyout by
American
Belgian brewer
‘(InBev’s) management
icon, built
InBev will take
by genera-
the company
techniques are partly
of
deep into debt,
borrowed from corporations tions
Teamster
resulting in lay-
workers,”
offs and an ero-
such as Wal-Mart.”
said Vice
sion of working
President
conditions.
Jack Cipriani, director of its Brewery
A deal to buy Anheuser-Busch —
and Soft Drink Workers Conference.
maker of Budweiser beer — for $52
Cipriani said the union assigned a
billion was approved by its board in
team of experts to examine the pro-
mid-July, after they first rejected the
posed takeover.
offer and lobbied some congressmen
After the deal was announced, Cip-
to help block it.
riani asked to meet InBev’s CEO to
The board’s reversal upset the
get an explanation of the huge debt In-
Teamsters.
Bev would take on and how it would
Anheuser-Busch-produced beers
be paid for without layoffs, closures,
make up 46 percent of all U.S. beer
consumption. If a takeover is success- and cuts in pay and benefits.
The consensus on Wall Street is
ful, the merged companies are ex-
that InBev is offering an exorbitantly
pected to control about 25 percent of
high price for A-B, which would put it
the world beer market.
under heavy pressure to service the
Teamsters are telling workers to
debt by selling assets and slashing
expect possible layoffs, wage cuts,
costs. Speculation already abounds
higher worker health care costs, infe-
that the first thing to go will be the
rior health benefits, and decreases in
company’s other divisions, which are
future pensions if the deal goes
not directly beer-producing, such as
through.
its Entertainment Division, theme
Almost 1,000 of the 7,000 Team-
parks, and can manufacturing plant.
sters’ members work at the corpora-
“If the pattern InBev management
tion’s flagship St. Louis brewery as
has followed overseas is any clue, la-
bottlers, brewers, oilers, security
bor costs will likely be one of the first
guards and Clydesdale horse drivers
places it will seek to make cuts,” the
and handlers, said Teamsters Local 6
Teamsters said.
President Bob Gartner.
One analyst told MarketWatch that
But it isn’t the only union facing
“InBev is run by a bunch of machete-
the InBev takeover.
wielding investment bankers who go
Other union employees at the St.
around and cut costs wherever they
Louis complex are represented by the
can.”
Machinists, the Electrical Workers,
The Teamsters say such an ap-
Painters, Carpenters, Sheet Metal
proach “could leave the new owners
Workers, the Iron Workers and
with a ‘demoralized work force and
Plumbers and Fitters unions, Gartner
tarnished brands.’ ”
said.
The union also says that Anheuser-
In addition, building trades work-
Busch retirees could be unprotected in
ers employed by outside contractors
the takeover. Workers’ current retiree
work on projects at the brewery.
health care protections are worth
InBev said it would maintain all
Busch breweries, predicted no signifi- thousands of dollars per year. If InBev
needs to service billions in loans, re-
cant job losses, and expected little or
tiree health care could be a cost-cut-
ting target.
“Consumers and the public see
Budweiser as the last of the great
American beers,” the Teamsters
Union said. The Wall Street Journal
calls Anheuser-Busch “a potent sym-
bol of Americana.”
“But it’s more than patriotism that
gives people pause about the InBev
buyout. Workers don’t always fare
well when outside conglomerates buy
breweries,” the Teamsters warned.
The union pointed to the buyout of
Miller Brewing’s U.S. operations by
South Africa Breweries.
“Since then, SAB has demanded
hikes in workers’ health care costs,
elimination of overtime after eight
hours, elimination of seniority rules
and drastic cuts in staffing levels. At
the three Teamster-represented Miller
breweries, we successfully fought
back those demands during contract
negotiations. But those demands were
implemented at the non-Teamster
breweries. We don’t want that to hap-
pen at Anheuser,” the union noted. In-
Bev has adopted the management
style of its Brazilian subsidiary, Am-
Bev, of extensive cost-cutting and in-
centive-based employee compensa-
tion, the Teamsters noted.
“It operates under a system that
stresses raising efficiency and cutting
costs — including labor costs,” the
union said. “The company’s manage-
ment techniques are partly borrowed
from corporations such as Wal-Mart.”
The Teamsters said InBev laid off
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hundreds of workers in plants in Eu-
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tions with employees and unions
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“Belgian workers struck over at-
tempts to force longer work hours,
close breweries and lay off hundreds.
When workers at its Newfoundland
Labatt plant struck, InBev hired an
outside security force.”
InBev closed Labatt’s Toronto
brewery, wiping out 265 jobs.
Roger Van Vlasselaer, national co-
ordinator of the largest InBev union in
Belgium, says InBev is pushing work-
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a brutal form of capitalism where only
profit counts and everything else is
disposable,” he says.
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PAGE 9
