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St. Louis: Meet The New Boss-Same As The Old Boss
St.Louis Committee for Labor Renewal is below
MEET THE NEW BOSS – SAME AS THE OLD BOSS
Workers at Anheuser – Busch have been union for more than 100 years. Basic worker’s rights were established by union representation though decades of bitter struggle. Generations of workers at A-B were able to live prosperously because of strong union contracts. Recently, however, workers at A-B have suffered because of attacks on their wages, benefits and working conditions. This deterioration is due to a corporate offensive against the entire working class. Autoworkers, steel-workers, teachers – all workers – have experienced the effects of this offensive which has snowballed in the last 30 years.
In – Bev’s takeover of Anheuser Busch is alarming because they have closed breweries and laid off hundreds of workers after takeovers.. This is the capitalist response to any problem – attack the workers. Corporations are transnational. No matter where their headquarters are located, their loyalty is to the bottom line: Profits. There are no “American” corporations – only – greedy corporations. Anheuser – Busch allowed the destruction of the union contracts and jobs of the oldest distributor of A-B products in St. Louis area- Lohr distributors. A-B also closed a glass producing plant for bottles in California , relocating that operation to Mexico . That is the legacy of A-B and In-Bev! Owned by a handful of elite, wealthy people around the world, these capitalists like Danforth and Busch family could care less where their profits are made. The Busch family and their stockholders were never loyal to St. Louis or America : They sold the St. Louis Cardinals, Shut down services and laid off workers at GrantsFarm ,gobbled up local breweries China and Mexico
Resistance can be successful
The Budvar Brewery in the Czech Republic is nationalized under public ownership. When A-B tried to purchase it, the Czech people closed ranks, united, and successfully thwarted this attempt to privatize their brewery. Although many of us feel that the St. Louis plant is our brewery- it isn’t- and A-B proved that beyond a doubt when they sold out for $52 billion! And the workers had no voice in this.
Time to Fight Back!
On August 18, 2008 A-B/ In Bev begin negotiations with the Teamsters representing 12 communities in the U.S.A. Today, leaders from unions in Brazil , Belgium and Canada are here in solidarity with the workers represented by the Teamsters. Organized labor needs to take this opportunity to form a Joint International Council for Global collective bargaining. Joint global bargaining is the best defense against transnational corporate attacks on working people. Imagine if IN BEV contracts were negotiated with global pattern bargaining and common expiration dates.
We should always try to buy union products, regardless where they are made. We are forming a committee of active and retired union members and independent workers to organize a St. Louis area wide fight back against transnational corporations. We invite you to the first of a series of meetings that will show videos and feature guest speakers which provide examples of successful struggles where working people .FIGHT BACK AND WIN!
Join us: Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 6:00 pm –
at the Carpenter Branch Library 3309 South Grand.
Issued by: The Committee for Labor Revival and Action
C/O Labor News / PO Box 3443 St. Louis MO 6314
E- Mail: mumtazmatin@yahoo.com
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