SEATTLE — Workers at one of Seattle’s largest craft breweries are joining the Teamsters. More than two dozen employees from Elysian Brewing will be some of the first brewing workers in the city to unionize.
"This is something they want to be an example for, for their generation of worker and folks in this specific industry," said John Scearcy, the Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local Union.
Scearcy is thrilled that 33 employees from Elysian Brewing Company voted to join the union back on August 22nd.
"That's one thing we heard from these workers is that they want to debunk the myth that this niche, breweries, cannot be unionized, and cannot be career jobs and they do want to set a trend," Scearcy said.
He said the workers are from the brewing company's Georgetown production facility. Scearcy said these workers reached out to Teamsters about three months ago, in hopes of getting a voice to fight for their needs.
"Want to be able to do this with livable wages, job securities and everything else that is a priority of the young working family to be able to make a career in doing what they actually have passion for, what they're good at, what they enjoy," said Scearcy.
The union plans on meeting with management with Elysian Brewing within the next two to three weeks to negotiate a new contract.
"Have some good conversations, sit across the table with the workers in the room, speaking about their priorities and negotiate back and forth very cordially and shake hands at the end of the day and take a package back to these workers that they can ratify," said Scearcy.
He said workers from the other Elysian Brewing locations are also considering unionizing, but nothing is imminent. KING 5 did reach out to Elysian Brewing for comment but has yet to hear back.