Sometimes us beer drinkers can end up in the middle of disputes. And that's exactly what's happening right now, between Minnesota's biggest beer distributor and its truck drivers.

Truck drivers of Teamsters Local 792 union are on strike because of safety concerns.

The distribution company, J.J. Taylor, states that they will "substantially increase the average pay for drivers plus health and retirement benefits." That sounds great! Except that in order to do this J.J. Taylor has decided to take two-person deliveries and make them one-person deliveries.

Ed Reynoso, political director for Teamsters 792, states that it "would make their job not just overly demanding, but dangerous, forcing individual drivers to lift and move dozens of 175-pound kegs in a single workday." That's scary!

Not only do the drivers need to drop off these kegs, many times they need to bring them to basements of bars and restaurants, which can sometimes have rickety stairs, making the delivery even more dangerous.

There are already some bars refusing deliveries of any beer from J.J. Taylor as part of the boycott. Some liquor stores are posting signs informing people of this strike and asking people to boycott the following 14 beers and 2 wine cooler products in solidarity since they are distributed by J.J. Taylor:

Miller and Miller Lite

Schell's

Deschutes

Founding Fathers

Summit Brewing

Four Loko

Red's Ale

Seagram's 4-packs

Heineken

Cold Spring Brewery

Guinness

New Belgium/Fat Tire

Belgian Owl Distilleries

Grain Belt Premium

Leinenkugel

Smirnoff Ice

Reynoso says, "the union's not trying to hurt any of the breweries involved" and that some are union shops themselves.

What do you think about this boycott? Will you give up these beers to support the drivers or do you think this is taking it too far?

 

Source: City Pages

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