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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2014)
...UNION BEER (From Page 12) sin and by members of UAW in Mil- waukee. Pabst Brewing Company The red-white-and-blue label says “Established in Milwaukee, 1844.” It should also say, “left town, 1996.” Pabst Brewing Company calls itself the largest American-owned brewery — because its larger competitors AB In- Bev and SABMiller are foreign- owned. But that’s only half true. Pabst is American-owned — by a Greek- born billionaire who lives in Connecti- cut. But it’s not a brewery. It’s a collec- tion of over 30 beer trademarks and secret recipes, plus marketing and sales. In the 1980s and 1990s, Pabst bought up a succession of beloved local breweries, closed them, and contracted out brewing to other companies. Today the company headquarters is in Los Angeles. The original Pabst brewery, closed in 1996, is now a LEED-Plat- NLRB says 41 employees in Macy’s cosmetic dept. can unionize with UFCW P ROUDLY S ERVING P ORTLAND W ORKERS F OR O VER 32 Y EARS A group of 41 employees working in the cosmetics and fragrances depart- ment of a Macy’s store in Saugus, Mas- sachusetts, can form a union, the Na- tional Labor Relations Board ruled last month. Macy’s challenged a petition by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1455 for a union election among the cosmetic department at the store. Macy’s contended that the smallest appropriate unit must include all 150 employees at the Saugus store or, at least, all 120 sales employees at the store. In a 3-1 decision issued last month, the NLRB said the workers at the store are an appropri- ate bargaining unit and share “a community of in- terest.” There is no bargaining history at the Saugus store, though UFCW Lo- cal 1455 and Macy’s have two collective-bargaining agreements covering em- ployees at six other Macy’s stores. Macy’s said it is con- sidering its options, in- cluding an appeal. inum-certified seven-block mixed-use development in downtown Milwaukee. And Pabst beer brands are brewed, packaged and shipped by competitor Miller-Coors, in a contract that extends to June 2020. So it’s a double irony that Pabst Blue Ribbon experienced a resurgence among younger drinkers in the last decade who adopted it as a marker of working class authenticity. Pabst is the leading outsourcer of its industry, a beer company that makes no beer. And in the city where it was born, it’s con- sidered “beer non grata” for closing up shop and trying to skip out on its pen- sion obligations on the way out of town. Pabst’s brand portfolio includes many national and regional beers: Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Rainier, Olympia, Stroh’s, Lone Star, Colt 45, and St. Ides. So when Pabst brands ap- pear on a union-made list, it’s because some of the facilities that make Pabst beers are union-represented, including the UAW-represented Miller-Coors brewery in Milwaukee. Contract Brewers The Labor Press also found several unionized contract breweries, which brew beers on contract for other com- panies. City Brewing Company owns the former Latrobe brewery (which NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Union Craft Breweries: Good Luck Beer sales as a whole are actually declining in the United States. Older drinkers are turning to wine. Younger drinkers are increasingly consuming distilled spirits. But one category of beer has experienced rapid growth, and that’s the craft beer segment that began among home brewers and small inde- pendent microbreweries. Today, craft beer accounts for about 7 percent of U.S. beer sales. Unfortunately for would-be drinkers of union-made beer, craft beer is almost entirely nonunion. The Labor Press was able to iden- tify just one unionized craft brewery: Mendocino Brewing Co., which makes Butte Creek organic beers and Talon Double IPA in Ukiah, California. Eugene passes paid sick leave ordinance In a 5-3 vote July 28, Eugene City Council became the second Oregon city to pass a paid sick leave mandate for private employers. The vote was in de- fiance of an unprecedented attempt by the Lane County Commission to ob- struct the city council. Similar to the Portland ordinance that took effect in January, the Eugene ordinance requires employers, starting July 1, 2015, to grant one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year. It applies to all employees who perform work inside Eugene city limits, regardless of where their employer is headquartered. Unlike Portland’s, the Eugene ordinance man- dates paid sick leave for employers of all sizes, not just those with more than 5 employees. The Eugene ordinance makes exceptions for other public em- ployers, and for members of building trades unions, who may work for multi- ple employers, and yet have equivalent CLARIFICATION: In an article on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Harris v. Quinn in the July 18, 2014, edition, Labor Press readers might have concluded that Portland labor attorney Gene Me- chanic advised SEIU Local 503 on the case, or was speaking on behalf of Local 503. That’s not the case. Mechanic has represented Local 503 on other cases, and is a knowledgeable source about public sector la- bor law, but didn’t provide a legal opinion on this case for Local 503. Also, ambiguity in the same paragraph AUGUST 1, 2014 originated Rolling Rock) in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which employs mem- bers of Communications Workers of America. It also has a brewery in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where workers are represented by the Teamsters. Teamsters also represent employees of the Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin; the Matt Brewing Com- pany in Utica, New York; and the Genesee Brewing Company in Rochester, New York. Genesee brews its own line of beers as well as other brands. benefits provided through trusts. The ordinance was sponsored by Eugene City Council members Claire Syrett and Alan Zelenka, and councilors George Brown, Betty Taylor, and Greg Evans voted for it. Councilors Mike Clark, George Poling and Chris Pryor voted against it. Mayor Kitty Piercy also supports the ordinance. The vote faces a legal fight because Lane County on July 21 — a day be- fore a public hearing on the Eugene or- dinance — voted 3-1 to approve three resolutions that aim to pre-empt any city in the county from passing any or- dinance mandating employment condi- tions, including wages and benefits. Commissioner Faye Stewart, Jay Bozievich and Sid Leiken voted for the measures, and Commissioner Pat Farr voted against them. The vote was taken while Commissioner Pete Sorenson, who supports paid sick leave, was out of town. might have led readers to attribute to Mechanic the statement that “the decision means that union con- tract fair share provisions would be unenforceable in Oregon and other states.” Mechanic didn’t make that statement, and would have put it differently, namely, that the decision creates a situation where the anti- union National Right to Work Legal Defense Foun- dation could argue that such provisions are unen- forceable in Oregon and other states. The Labor Press regrets any confusion. PAGE 11
