Akkam’s Razor

I like Dick Yeungling's tasty products, but this is a clear failure to bargain on good terms and a blatent attempt to bust the Union.  The last case I have will be the last case I buy until this gets resolved:

Union leaders say Yuengling told the workers that he would sell the business or shut it down unless they shed their decades-long affiliation with the Teamsters. How else, they ask, to explain the sudden decision to decertify?

The brewery says employees started a decertification drive with no encouragement or interference from the owner.

"The company simply honored the employees' wishes," Casinelli said.

The National Labor Relations Board found no evidence that management had pressured employees to leave Philadelphia-based Local 830.

No surprise there, the Teamsters said. Employees were too scared of losing their $20-an-hour jobs to testify about what was said at the meeting, union leaders said.

The closing of factories has been the constant threat any employer makes come contract time.  Truth be told, the plant in Pottsville is ancient (but an interesting place to tour) and certainly can't be as efficient as their newer plant in Florida. 

That said, Dick Yuengling closes the local plant, and he loses the local - core - Yuengling consumers.  Furthermore, the Pottsville Brewery is the only major business left in town, and I'm sure Dick gets a plethora of tax breaks.  The exodous of the plant will be the death of Yuengling and Pottsville. 

I wonder if he's contemplating the damage he's doing to a working class brand?  Maybe he's trying to improve the financial outlook and get bought out by one of the Big Two (Budweiser and Anheiser Busch)?

I remember starting to drink Yuengling when it was the cheap beer - and of course their Black and Tan - and who can forget Lomba drinking Lord Chesterfield's Ale, a malty combination of dirty socks and soggy cardboard, so that no one would drink HIS beers.

I've been in a union.  I have no need for a union.  But I look down on any company that tries to play hardball and disenfranchise employee efforts to form a collective bargaining unit. 

Historically, the NLRB has leaned right since the Reagan days - aka the firing of the Flight Controllers - and has consistently favored the imperatives of business versus the legal right of the employees a majority of the time.  One way or another, No Yuengling in my house (once this case is done).  Any suggestions for replacements?

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