‘No micro pay for micro brewers’

Workers at Elysian organized with Teamsters 117 rallied Saturday in Georgetown in their fight for a fair contract

SEATTLE, WA (September 30, 2024) — The Pacific Northwest is synonymous with craft brewing, and Seattle is no exception. Some of the most well-known microbrews in the nation come from breweries based in the city, including Elysian. But despite the blockbuster profitability of brews like Space Dust, the workers who make the product are struggling to make ends meet.

That’s why workers at Elysian organized with Teamsters 117 in August of 2023, and it’s why they rallied together with other Teamsters and labor supporters; after more than a year, the workers still do not have a first contract. Moreover, the company is now pushing a decertification vote to strip the workers of their union protections.

Elysian Brewery used to be a locally-owned business with roots deeply embedded in Seattle’s Capitol Hill and Georgetown neighborhoods. Workers were valued for producing some of the highest-quality micro-brews in the country. That all changed in 2015 when the company was bought out by multinational behemoth Anheuser Busch.

Gregg Hughes, who has worked at Elysian for 12 years, said that workers got some benefits with Busch came in. But wages were kept low, far lower than the pay for workers doing the same labor in California and Colorado. Hughes is in his sixties, and soon to retire; he’s got a pension from another Teamsters-represented job. But he’s been fighting for the union contract for the “young kids” coming up behind him.

“We want a fair wage for the amount of work we put in,” said Hughes. “I worked a six day work week this week, 10-11 hour shifts. My love is in that building, I just want equal pay.”

Workers planned to leaflet an event held at the Elysian taproom in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle. Management, however, perhaps afraid to face the workers, canceled the event. The workers lined the sidewalk in front of Elysian and chanted, buoyed by frequent honks of support from passing cars.

Like Hughes, many of the workers gathered on Saturday spoke of their love for their jobs, and for the microbrew industry. These workers have invested countless hours into Elysian’s products that make Anheuser Busch so much profit. They just want to keep brewing up good beer — and see some of their labor’s profit in their paychecks.