The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.40           November 9, 1998 
 
 
Teamsters At Anheuser-Busch Hold Two-Day Strike  

BY ALYSON KENNEDY
CHICAGO - The 66 members of Teamsters Local 367 began a two- day strike against Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Missouri, October 23. Two thousand members of the three other Teamster locals and union subcontractors at the plant, the largest of the 12 Anheuser- Busch breweries nationwide, refused to cross the picket line.

Since their contract with Anheuser-Busch expired in February 1998, the Teamsters members have twice rejected contract offers. On September 21 the company began unilaterally imposing its "final offer" at all the breweries, affecting 8,000 workers.

This contract increases the subcontracting of maintenance work, guts the jobs bidding procedure, allows the company to arbitrarily assign workers to jobs, and increases the number of part-time and seasonal workers. Overtime pay is provided only after a worker puts in more than 40 hours in a week, and the company has begun implementing additional work rules that are not even in the imposed contract.

The members of Teamsters Local 367 who initiated the strike, the first Teamsters walkout at Anheuser-Busch in 22 years, are the oilers and firemen who run the power house.

"This contract is no good for our local," said Henry Peebles, a member of Local 367 who has worked at the plant's powerhouse for more than 20 years. He said that outsourcing of jobs was the main reason for the strike.

While the company promises the union members jobs for the life of the contract, they may be forced to move to other departments, such as the bottling plant where they would have no seniority.

Truckers who deliver beer to local distributors refused to drive their trucks beyond the Teamsters picket line. Managers took the trucks into the plant, filled them up, and returned them.

The brewery continued to operate during the strike. Nonunion workers and management ran the production lines. The company claims it had been training them for more than a year.

A meeting was held between company officials and Teamster representatives from all four locals at the St. Louis plant October 24, the second day of the work stoppage. Dave Laughton, the Teamsters chief negotiator, flew in for the meeting. The pickets came down that evening.

Roger Smith, president of Teamsters Local 367, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the "issues weren't resolved in Friday's talks."

According to the paper's October 23 issue, Roger Newell, a spokesman for the Teamsters at their headquarters in Washington, said all union negotiators were to meet in Florida next week to discuss implementation of the contract.

Joe Thomas, a member of Teamsters Local 1187, representing 900 bottlers, who was picketing October 24, told the Post- Dispatch, "We're union people, and we stick together. If that's what it takes to back up Local 367, than this is what we'll do."

Alyson Kennedy is a member of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 7-507. Jim Garrison, a United Auto Workers member in St. Louis, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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