Sponsored link
Friday, July 18, 2025

Sponsored link

News + PoliticsLaborAnchor Brewing workers vote for union

Anchor Brewing workers vote for union

Contract could set new standards for fast-growing craft-beer industry.

-

The workers at Anchor Brewing voted overwhelmingly to unionize this afternoon, with 36 of the 52 eligible employees casting ballots to join the ILWU.

“It was a totally overwhelming victory,” Brace Belden, one of the union activists, told me.

The workers have been fighting for a union for months, up against Sapporo, a giant brewing operation that now owns Anchor. The company has been fighting back, trying to discourage the union vote – but the outcome is pretty clear.

“There’s nothing they can challenge here,” Belden said.

The next step is electing a negotiating committee (the ILWU is a democratic union) and starting contract talks.

On Friday/15, workers at the Anchor Public Taps – a bar across the street from the old brewery – will also vote on whether to join the union.

“We started this campaign because we were fed up with deteriorating pay, because our benefits  were being slashed, and because many of us were concerned with the direction things were going,” a union statement notes. “But we realized that the real reason we were doing this was because, for the first time in many of our lives, we had a chance to have a voice in our work lives, to have a say in our contract, to have a seat at the table.”

The union vote could have a huge ripple effect in the rapidly growing craft-beer industry. A decade ago, most craft brewers were small, local operations; now, they’re becoming big-time companies. And Anchor – a San Francisco institution – would be the first one to be unionized.

Which means that, assuming management is willing to negotiate in good faith, we can all be proud to drink Anchor beer.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
Sponsored link
Sponsored link

Featured

Good Taste: Shekoh Confections debuts in SF, with irresistible Persian bonbons

Shekoh Moossavi moved her otherworldly delights up from Palo Alto, offering young local chefs sweet opportunity.

Under the Stars: Giving jazz the juice again, Mr. Peterson?

Plus: Hip-Hop Fest sees RBL Posse's return, 'Woga' lives, Los Bitchos take GAMH—and do we really need a Four Tet Mazzy Star moment?

Scissor Sisters’ Babydaddy grows into a new ‘Nostalgia’

From EndUp dance floor to pop fame, musician Scott Hoffman now delves into the world of graphic novels.

More by this author

Parks Alliance leaders accept no responsibility for the group’s scandal and collapse

Hearing shows a complete lack of internal or external oversight as community groups and the city lose millions

Supes approve billionaire budget, 10-1

This is not 'shared sacrifice.' Plus: the mayor gets control over Prop. C housing money

Tests for the supes: The budget, protecting rent-controlled housing ….

... and an RV ban that could force families onto the streets. That's The Agenda for July 13-20
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED