As Molson Coors leaders gather in Nashville this week for the company’s annual distributor convention, union workers at the Milwaukee production facility are picketing the lack of a three-year contract extension and threatening to strike, WDJT Milwaukee reported.
UAW Local 9 Brewery Workers bargaining chair Joe Kanzleiter told the outlet that negotiations have been ongoing since July and a tentative agreement was “not as good as what we were hoping for.” Negotiations are expected to resume on Friday.
In a statement, Molson Coors said: “We have been in conversation with the union and hope to have a quick resolution that benefits all parties.”
Kanzleiter told WDJT that the union represents “the largest workforce inside the brewery.” They’re seeking wage increases and better working conditions such as “less excessive overtime, more paid time off and better benefits,” according to the report.
However, Kanzleiter said Molson Coors has “proposed some pay cuts and a two-tier wage scale,” which would mean some workers would make less than others doing the same job. Molson Coors implemented the latter from 2013 through 2016 but Kanzleiter said it didn’t work out and is “the antithesis of what our union is about.”
“We worked right through the pandemic,” he told the outlet. “You know, we had a mass shooting here over two years ago. We feel that we deserve more.”
A request for comment from UAW Local 9 was unreturned as of press time.