Union Protests Hiring at Budweiser Plant

About 200 union members picketed Wednesday in front of the Budweiser plant and dozens more stayed away from work to protest the brewery’s decision to hire a nonunion construction contractor.

Unionized ironworkers, pipe fitters, electricians and carpenters refused to cross picket lines, slowing down work at the plant.

The Service Employees International Union, Local 209--a carpentry union--was joined by several other labor groups and was protesting a contract employing two nonunion carpenters.

Officials at Anheuser-Busch Inc., the St. Louis-based company that owns the brewery, issued a tersely worded statement that explained that a contract for “miscellaneous carpentry work was put out for bid and both union and nonunion bids were reviewed.”

H.M.S. Construction, a Los Angeles contracting firm, bid 20% lower than union bids six weeks ago.

Local 209 Business Representative Robert Almond said that H.M.S. bid lower because it offered carpenters at the plant lower wages and no benefits for workers hired by the firm.

Representatives from Janitors for Justice, SEIU Local 1877, were also at the plant Wednesday passing out leaflets for an expected demonstration Friday.

Unionized maintenance workers at the brewery are upset over Budweiser’s plans to lay off half of the plant’s janitorial staff--about 15 workers--and to replace them with nonunion workers.

“Many of those janitors have been there for 20 years so it’s a major cut they are proposing,” said Local 1877 spokeswoman Blanca Galleglis.