Maletis Beverage removed from labor’s Unfair List

“Drink Budweiser again,” says the union that represents Portland-area distributors of the beer.

Teamsters Local 162, which represents workers at Maletis Beverage, got the Northwest Oregon Labor Council (NOLC) to add Maletis to its Unfair List March 22. That meant that the central labor body was asking local union members not to drink Widmer, Red Hook and Kirin brands, and the Anheuser-Busch brands Michelob, Budweiser and Busch. Maletis workers had been 14 months without a contract.

A week later, reports Local 162 business agent Phil Muter, a new contract was approved by a vote of the members.

The four-year contract contained a wage increase of 40 cents an hour for drivers and 35 cents for warehouse workers. Some of that wage increase took the form of an increased pension contribution.

With the workers again under a union contract, NOLC removed Maletis from the Unfair List at its May 10 Executive Board meeting.

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