Anheuser-Busch union members are ready to strike.
Ninety-nine per cent of the roughly 5,000 Teamsters working at the company’s 12 US breweries have voted to authorise a strike, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a press release on Saturday. The breweries produce some of the country’s most popular beer brands, including Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra and Busch.
The union said it wants an agreement that improves wages, protects jobs and secures health and pension benefits for its members. The current agreement expires on 29 February.
“If Anheuser-Busch executives can’t get their act together and negotiate an agreement that respects workers, we’ll see them in the streets,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in the release.
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The Teamsters said no date has been set for negotiations. Anheuser-Busch did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Strike authorization votes are common during contract negotiations and may not result in a strike. Earlier this year, Teamsters at UPS and Las Vegas unions representing hospitality workers authorised strikes that were averted by new agreements.
The threat of a strike at Anheuser-Busch comes after the brewer’s parent company, AB InBev, saw its sales and share price hit by a conservative-led boycott of Bud Light. The backlash stemmed from the brand’s brief partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote a March Madness competition on social media.
AB InBev’s share price has largely recovered since then, closing 4.9% higher on Friday than at the start of the year, but the boycott continues to weigh on performance. US sales fell 13.5% in the third quarter “primarily due to volume declines in Bud Light”, CEO Michel Doukeris said during an earnings call in October.
