(Photo: Teamsters/Facebook)
On Wednesday, Molson Coors Teamsters announced it has ratified a deal with the beverage giant that ends a months-long picket line outside its Fort Worth, Texas brewery.
Four hundred and twenty unionized employees who walked off the job in February will now return to work under a three-year contract that guarantees wage increases, improved benefits and retiree healthcare, Teamsters officials say. Negotiations first began in November, applying further pressure in April when the Teamsters called for a nationwide boycott against the beer company.
Unionized workers in Texas will now get back to work on producing recognizable brands like Miller Light, Miller High Life and Coors Light.
“Our members never gave up, they pushed back on this company until they got a fair contract that recognizes their contributions. Teamsters don’t back down from a fight and we will always fight for what we deserve,” Jeff Padellaro, director of the Teamsters Brewery, Bakery and Soft Drink Conference said in a news release.
Calls for a strike picked up momentum at the end of last year when Molson Coors — conservatively valued at $13 billion — announced record-high growth and profits for the previous quarter.
Teamsters argued that brewery workers in Texas, over 80% of whom are unionized, were getting cents on the dollar. The strike quickly evolved to include picket lines outside Molson Coors factories in New York, Ohio and Georgia. Workers were pictured holding signs saying "No Justice, No Beer" and "Nobody Likes A Cheat."
“Molson Coors reported making six years’ worth of profit growth just last year but is offering most Teamsters families in Texas less than $1 in new wages,” Teamsters said in a Facebook post in February.
Negotiations with Molson Coors coincided with an authorized strike against Anheuser-Busch, the beer conglomerate behind Bud Light and Michelob Ultra. If implemented, the strike would have seen 5,000 teamsters at 12 facilities across the country walk off the job.
AB InBev narrowly avoided the strike days before its deadline in March, granting wage increases, increased pension benefits, increased maximum vacation accrual, restoration of retirement benefits and improved health care coverage to unionized workers.
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