Production workers for Ohio’s Great Lakes Brewing Company went public Sunday with an effort to form a union, with help from the United Steelworkers union.
Brewery workers announced their intentions on the newly created Great Lakes Organizing Committee (GLOC) Facebook page.
“We are employees of the Great Lakes Brewing Company, which is ‘Employee Owned,’” the post read. “We’re building a union with our co-workers because employee owners also deserve a voice on the job. We love working at GLBC and want to make it an even better place to work for ourselves and to preserve the positive aspects of our jobs.”
The Cleveland chapter of Democractic Socialists of America (DSA) shared its support for the movement on Twitter. The organization said it helped guide Great Lakes’ employees through the early stages of the unionization process before they chose to align with United Steelworkers at the end of last year.
“This unionization campaign was in part inspired by other successful unionizations of craft brewery workers, such as Anchor Steam, and we hope it will lead to more unionization across the industry,” Cleveland DSA wrote. “We demand that Great Lakes Brewing Company recognize their union and show Cleveland that ‘Employee Owned’ is more than just words on a label.”
Great Lakes launched its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in May 2018, which enabled employees to earn shares of stock in the company. The brewery employs 60 workers at its two production facilities in the greater Cleveland area, according to DSA.
Employees have taken the first step in unionizing by signing union cards, which signals to the National Labor Relations Board their desire to hold a union election. The union would include employees in all aspects of production, delivery and maintenance, but would not include restaurant workers at Great Lakes brewpub, according to the Cleveland Scene.
“We feel very good about where we’re at right now,” an anonymous member of the GLOC told the Scene. “The overwhelming majority of workers love working at Great Lakes. We wouldn’t be doing this otherwise. A lot of people think that unions are a referendum on working conditions, but for most of us, it’s about making a good place to work a great place to work.”
An online petition was created by DSA to show support for the union and currently has 760 signatures, with a goal of 800 signatures. The petition asks that Great Lakes management “voluntarily recognize the union and not interfere with the worker’s right to collective bargain.”
Great Lakes did not respond to Brewbound’s request for comment.
Last October, a union election at Minneapolis’ Surly Brewing fell one vote short of passing. Although Surly’s hospitality workers voted 56-20 in favor of joining Unite Here Local 17, a Twin Cities union, “the rules declare we need over 50% of all eligible employees to vote in favor of the union to win,” Unite Surly Workers wrote at the time.
Employees of at least two craft breweries have successfully organized. Workers of San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing approved a three-year contract in December 2019 with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. In September 2020, Minneapolis-based Fair State Brewing Cooperative voted to unionize, which brewery management recognized immediately. The Fair State employees joined United Here Local 17.