Unions at Ballantine
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Labor Unions
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Ballantine
"(In March, 1886) a brewery workers' organization was formed in Newark. The condition of the brewery workers here was a particularly bad one. On weekdays the daily work often amounted to from fifteen to eighteen hours, and to this was added frequently Sunday labor of about ten hours, so that the brewers hardly ever had an hour to themselves. Besides this, the monthly wage of the skilled brewers was only $40 per month and that of the unskilled hands correspondingly less.
"In Newark as in New York the organization of the brewery workers was taken in hand by the Knights of Labor. First they organized the employees of the Geier Brewery, which is now known as the Home Brewery, into the "Enterprise Assembly" of the Order, and on March 21, 1886, a general meeting of the brewery workers of Newark was called and Brewers' Union No. 2 was formed, which is still in existence."
"In the neighboring city of Newark, N. J., where a comparatively large brewing industry has developed, the material conditions of the workingmen in the industry are in the main the same as those prevailing in New York. But the brewers there have succeeded in obtaining the eight-hour day. The number of organized workingmen in this industry in Newark is about 1,100, of whom 460 are in Local Union No. 2, 450 in the beer drivers' and stablemen's union No. 148, and 180 in the union of bottled-beer workers. The wages of the brewers are about the same as those in New York; the maltsters get $16 to $18, the beer drivers and stablemen $13 to $19 a week with a ten-hour day, and the bottled-beer workers receive $10 to $16, also working ten hours."
--- THE BREWING INDUSTRY & THE BREWERY WORKERS MOVEMENT IN AMERICA
Herman Schulter - 1910 - The Int. Union United Brewery Workmen of America
1st UNION LABEL
THE NATIONAL UNION OF UNITED BREWERY WORKMEN OF AMERICA
Timeline of Ballantine & Newark area Brewery Union Activity
1881 - June NYC metro area strike ("...most of the breweries in New York City, Staten Island, Newark, Jersey City, etc." *). 1000's are out over 50¢ an hour pay on Sunday. * The New Brunswick (NJ) Times also claims the strikers want a 12 hour day and no work on Sunday.
120 strikers in Newark. Krueger and Hauck not affected by strike - ",,,employees there are satisfied with their wages and hours of labor" (NYT).
June 9 - "Word was received during the afternoon from Ballantine & Co., the largest brewers in Newark, NJ, that eight of their men had returned to work on the brewers' conditions, and that five other men had asked to be allowed to return, but had been refused because they were the chief agitators of the strike."
1887 - Feb. - Knights of Labor Assembly 49 strike.
1888 April 17 NYC metro area strike. Newark strike headquarters at 323 Market St.
P. Ballantine & Sons announces they will not interfere with the employees who join the union.
1890 Newark's Brewers Union No. 2 withdrawals from the National Brewery Workmen for 4 weeks - reason unknown.
1891 Brewers Union No. 2 charges the local Socialist Party of Newark of scheduling their Labor Day picnic in a park where only "scab beer" is sold.
1893 Newark's Citizens Brewing Co. signs annual contract with Brewers Union No. 2.
Joint BU No. 2/Socialist Section of Newark Labor Day Picnic - Oertel's Phoenix Park.
Union meetings are held at Pollock Hall, 43 Prince St, share with the Laborers and the Anarchists.
1894 John Lutz elected Corresponding Secretary of Brewers Union No. 2
1895 Brewers Union No. 2 announces it will not initiate any new members until all current union member are employed.
1898 Hensler workers object to Brewery Workmen boycott of Hensler Beer as non-union "Pool Beer".
1900
[BELOW] Detail from Prohibition era ad for a Ballantine brand of Malt Syrup
1901 -Other local breweries with contracts with Brewers Union No. 2 include Krueger, Lyon, Hensler, Peter Hauck (Harrison) and Rock Spring (Highland Park).
1904 Newark Brewery Workmen Bottlers' Local #268 chartered.
Newark Brewery Workmen Stationary Engineers and Firemen Local #209 switches affiliation to the International Union of Steam And Operating Engineers, Local Union No. 68 of Essex County, according to a jurisdictional agreement between the 2 international unions and the AFL.
1906 - Newark brewery locals claim a loss of 40 jobs with the enactment of the "Bishops Law" which closes saloons on Sunday.
1908 -NJ State Federation of Labor endorses the Brewery Workmen union label and union wagon
sign. Beer Drivers Union No. 148's Secretary Adam Zusi elected to State AFL's Executive Committee.
At the time of the Annual Convention of the Brewery Workmen, membership in Newark's 3 Brewery Workmen locals totals about 1,100 - 460 in Brewers Union No. 2, 450 in Beer Drivers No. 148 and 180 in Beer Bottlers No. 268. This was approximately 2.5% of the total membership of 45,233.
1909 - Strike by Ballantine teamsters at the NYC Depot.
The Essex Trades Council and the Carriage Workers No. 151 announce a boycott of the Hensler Brewing Co. for using non-union shops for their wagon work.
191O
1911 Brewers Union No.2 - 25th Anniversary. President of local is Otto Ruhnke (who would also run for Essex County Assembly on the Socialist Party line the next year). At the time Local 2 had 500 members "...about 60% of the members are Socialists, holders of the red card." (New York Call).
Local 2 and other NJ BW locals call for boycott of Anheuser-Busch beer, over their refusal to use the Brewery Workmen Union Label.
Strike at Ballantine brewery/ies. MA area boycott, called off when CLU received work that both ale and lager breweries had been unionized.
[ABOVE]
Ballantine keg labels
with "AFL Brewery Workers" labels.
Brewers' Union No. 2 sponsors a speech by Socialist US Congressman Victor Berger. Berger will give the speech in both English and German. Many Brewery Workers publications would also be printed in both languages, due to the overwhelming number of brewery workers of German heritage.
1914 Brewers Union No. 2 introduces a resolution calling for “Government seizure of the packing houses, grainaries, food warehouses and similar plants…” in order to safeguard the people of this country against “threatened starvation” at State AFL Convention.
William Umstadter of Beer Bottlers Union Local 268 nominated to attend national AFL Convention.
GEORGE RAUB - Ballantine - "Syrup"
Krueger
ALBERT HIES - Feigenspan
Breweries where BREWERS UNION
No. 2 officials/members worked
1916 Jurisdictional dispute at Ballantine between the Brewery Workmen and the Machinists.
Joseph Mang, former secretary of Brewers Union No. 2 arrested in Covina, CA for embezzling $1500 of union funds.
1917 - International changes its name to International Union of United Brewery and Soft Drink Workers of America.
Aug. 20 Newark brewery workers walk out.
CHAS. KASSENBERG -Ballantine kettlemanFeigenspan
ANTON KIRCHER
Feigenspan
RUDOLPH KIRCHER
Feigenspan
FRANK NEHER - Union Brewing Co.
FRANK RAUSCH - Orange Brewing Co.
OTTO RUHNKE, Jr - Orange Brewing Co.
Krueger
1919 45,000 member Essex Trades Council adopts "No Beer, No Work" slogan, with unions with over 180,000 members of NYC's Central Federated Trades Council backing it.PROHIBITION
1920 1,200 NJ Brewery Workers walk out of breweries in Newark, Elizabeth, Paterson, Harrison and Jersey City for higher wages. A brewery owner is quoted as saying they could not raise their pay since "because of prohibition there are no profits".
NEWARK AREA BREWERY UNION DELEGATES
1931 - October 30 - The 3
IN RED - PRE-PRO
IN BLUE - POST-REPEAL
ABRAHAM SAMSON
Ballantine
CHRISTIAN LUTZ
Ballantine
MARTIN SCHRECK
Ballantine
---
BOTTLERS
REPEAL
1933 - "Large Newark Brewery Is Closed by Strike; Key Workers Refuse to Accept 15% Pay Cut"NEW YORK TIMES - .April 9, 1933, NEWARK, N.J. Considered to be the "First brewery strike since beer legalization."
1941 - After decades of jurisdictional conflict with the Teamsters and other "craft" unions, the AFL expels the "industrially-organized" International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal and Soft Drink Workers of America.
1942 - Newark locals # 148 (Beer Drivers and Stablemen's Union) and #268 (Beer Bottlers Union) vote to leave the United Brewery & Soft Drink Workers of America (at the time an Independent union after being expelled from the AFL) and join the AFL International Brotherhood of Teamsters, forming Locals #153 and #843, respectively, with the same union officers.
1944 - Brewers Union #2 and Brewery Workers #148 are both among the local unions supporting the Minneapolis Smith Act prisoners.
Newark locals of the Brewery Workers are among the first marchers in the now famous (thanks to the frequently printed image - below left) WE WANT BEER Anti-Prohibition march in Newark.
WWII strike of Local 843 (Drivers and Bottlers) affects Ballantine - then essentially running two breweries with the addition of Feigenspan - and 5 other North Jersey breweries. When brewers complain to the press that the strike is holding up their deliveries to the armed forces, strikers volunteer to work without pay to bottle and deliver the beer to military bases.
1946 – United Brewery Workers vote to join the CIO.
Layoff of 600 workers due to Federal grain rationing.
April 22 Strike, 900 members of Beer Bottlers and Beer Drivers Union. John J.Quillin, president, AFL local 843
1947 - April 1, Newark brewery workers' AFL locals #153 and #843 call off threat to strike 7 NJ breweries unless the CIO Brewery Workers Local #2 leaves their union for the AFL.
Brewery Workers Local #2 membership votes to leave the CIO Brewery Workers Union and joins the AFL as the directly-affiliated "Brewery Workers" Federal Labor Union #24251.
1948 - Oct. 20 "Wildcat" NYC brewery strike- Ballantine AFL drivers refuse to cross CIO strikers’ line at George Washington Bridge.
1949 - April 1 - June 20. Infamous NYC Strike of 7000 United Brewery Workers from 7 locals, working at 14 NY breweries.
Despite the jurisdictional "war" between the AFL Teamsters and the CIO Brewery Workers in the NY-NJ metro region, IBT "Bottle Beer Drivers and Warehousemen" Local 843 President and Business Agent Joseph Quillin recommends that his members "assess themselves" in order to support the CIO NYC strikers.
CIO Brewery Workers allow AFL-brewed beer from NJ to be delivered to NYC. Ballantine alone ships 8000 bbl. a day when normal deliveries from all NJ brewers is usually 3000 bbl. Other outside brewers, notably Blatz, shipped beer into the city during the strike.
The New York Times (June 17, 1949) noted:
"The one company that has benefited the most in sales to the tavern trade and probably will maintain its position – without offering any price advantages – is P. Ballantine & Sons."
During the NYC strike of CIO Brewery Workers, Ballantine closes their New York State depots in Hicksville and White Plains, which had CIO contracts.
1951 – CIO Brewery Workers Local 2 certified by the NLRB as exclusive bargaining agent for brewing department after election pitting it against FLU #24251 at the not yet fully-operational Anheuser-Busch Newark brewery. IBT Locals #148 and 843 attempt to gain bargaining rights for "not-yet-hired employees" in other departments.
1953 – Last CIO Brewery Workers local in Newark, Brewers Union #2 votes to leave for AFL, creating Teamster Local 102, representing Anheuser-Busch workers.
NLRB certifies the AFL Teamster joint board locals as sole bargaining units for P. Ballantine & Sons workers, along with workers at Newark's Pabst/Hoffman, Krueger, Hensler, and Liebmann (Rheingold) in Orange during Teamsters' "Operation Newark". More than half of the eligible voters were Ballantine workers - 2,504 out of 4,207.
The Teamsters charter AFL FLU "Brewery Workers" #24251 as IBT Local #4.
May - first week of June, strike. AFL 6000 workers in Newark, over back wages.
1958 - Office Employees' International Union fails in attempt to organize Newark and New York City Ballantine sales offices' workers.
1959 - Local 102 wins organizing drive for Anheuser-Busch Newark office workers.
1962 - Workers at both Ballantine and Anheuser-Busch petition the NLRB to eliminate joint bargaining between the 4 brewers and the IBT Brewery Workers Joint Board (still only Locals 4, 148 and 843) over seniority concerns.
August - Strike of Local 68 Stationary Engineers at Pabst and Liebmann spreads to Ballantine and Anheuser-Busch. Teamster brewery locals do not honor picket lines and breweries remain operational.
1967 - Two day Strike at Ballantine - June 26-28.
Local 102 wins organizing drive for Rheingold - Orange office workers.
1969 - January 7 strike by 900 members of Local 843 at Ballantine over lost jobs due to automation.
1972 - NJ Governor Cahill calls for FTC investigation of purchase of P. Ballantine and Sons labels by Falstaff, and the announced closing of the brewery. Judge refuses to investigate, but prohibits firings until union negotiations end.
Last day March 31, Friday- brief sit-in by employees.
1953 post-Strike ad
600 to be re-hired by Falstaff which would set up a distribution depot in North Bergen for Ballantine and other Falstaff brands.1973 - A year and a half after the closing of P. Ballantine & Sons, after more than half a century of conflict, the Brewery Workers Union merged into the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Newark area brewery locals
Newark area brewery locals
KNIGHTS OF LABOR - Newark District 51
Ale and Porter Journeymen Brewers' Association
BREWERY WORKERS UNION (AFL/Ind./CIO)
Brewery Workmen's Union of New York and Vicinity
"Brewers' Union No. 2" (Brewing Dept.) 1 (> AFL - 1947 and 1953)
Beer Drivers and Stablemen's Union Local 148 2 (> IBT - 1942)
Beer Bottlers Union (Bottling and Delivery Department) Local 268 3 (> IBT - 1942)
(Above made up > ) Newark Brewery Workers Joint Board
Maltsters' Union, Local 171
1912 - United Brewery Workmen Newark locals
_________
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS + other AFL
Brewery Workers Joint Local Executive Board of NJ (IBT- included Locals 24251 > 4, 153 and 843)
1 AFL Federal Labor Union #24251 - Brewhouse Workers* (>IBT Local 4)
*Jurisdiction: "All employees employed in the brewing department, at the kettles, coolers, filters, carbonizers, rackers and in the wash house.”
1a Brewery, Syrup, Yeast & Grain Workers Local 4 IBT
2 Local 153 Teamsters - (AFL/Ind.) Keg Beer Handlers Union
3 Local 843 Teamsters (AFL/Ind.) - Bottled Beer Drivers, Warehousemen, Bottlers and Helpers-
1b Local 102 Teamsters BREWERY, INDUSTRIAL, PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES aka Technical Teamsters (Ind.) - Local 102 "Brewers & Machinists"
Originally the revived CIO Brewery Workers Local 2 (Anheuser-Busch employees) which voted to join the Teamsters in July, 1953. AB and Rheingold white collar workers also belonged to Local 102, voting for unionization in 1959 and 1967.
In 1970, brewery workers at the Stegmaier and The Lion (aka Gibbons) breweries in Wilkes-Barre, PA., voted to disaffiliate from UBW Local 163 and joined IBT Local 102. 4 years later, another election was held and Gibbons worked voted to leave the IBT and rejoined the AFL-CIO as a Directly-Affiliated Local Union - Brewery Workers Local 3067. Soon after, Stegmaier closed.
102 also organized beer distributors and other non-brewing companies as well as public workers.
Beer distributor drivers on strike, 1987
________________
Other labor unions which had contracts with P. Ballantine & Sons
Cooper International Union of North America (AFL) "Beer, Ale and Brewery Coopers" Local 134
International Association of Machinists Dist. 47 - Lodge 340
International Union of Steam And Operating Engineers, Local Union No. 68 of Essex County, Harrison, Kearny and Elizabeth
International Union of Journeymen Horseshoers of the US and Canada, Local 22, Newark, NJ (1908)
Beer Pipe & Block Tin Workers (AFL-CIO) [Voted to join Teamsters Local 843 - 1961]
Wholesale Licensed Alcoholic Beverage Salesmen’s Union #20376-B (Beer Division) (NYC - Plaza office)
Falstaff era
North Bergen Distribution Depot (NY-NJ)
IBT Local 153 (1972 - 1975)
-
IBT Local 114 (Cranston, RI)
Brewery Workers Beer Drivers and Soft Drink Workers
-
IBT Local 1162 (Ft. Wayne, IN)
-
IBT Local 554 (Omaha, NE)
[LEFT ] The heads of the local unions in the AFL Joint Executive Council of Newark-area brewery workers celebrate their overwhelming victory over the United Brewery Workers (CIO) in 1953 during the Teamster's "Operation Newark" [ABOVE].
Walter Ruhnke had been Secretary of Newark's Local 2
of the Brewery Workers Union, both before and after Prohibition, as well a BW delegate to state AFL Conventions in the Pre-Pro era. WWI draft records noted that he worked at Ballantine & Sons before Prohibition, and the 1930 census listed him as a "syrup worker - brewery" suggesting he was still at Ballantine..
Otto Ruhnke was the name of both Walter's older brother and father (both of whom were also brewers) - one of whom also attended the NJ State AFL Convention in 1911 [RIGHT].
Otto Ruhnke - likely the father - had been the president of Brewers Union No. 2 and would also run for Essex County Assembly on the Socialist Party line in 1912. He was born in Germany, emigrated to the US in 1880, with his earliest listing as a "brewer" in Newark was 1889.
Walter's brother, Otto, Jr., was a brewer for the Orange Brewing Co. in the late 1910s and would be working for Krueger in the early 1940s. Another brother, Edward, also worked for Orange and, after Repeal, at Feigenspan.
As an officer of Brewers Union No. 2, Walter Ruhnke would introduce a resolution in support of labor martyr Tom Mooney at the 1917 New Jersey AFL Convention.
He would later be associated with the leftist International Labor Defense organization in the mid-1930s, as a member of their local Trade Union Advisory Committee.
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Joseph Quillin was an officer of Newark's Brewery Workers "Beer Bottlers Union" Local 268 before that local's membership voted for the AFL, and became Teamsters Local 843 in June, 1942. He would be noted as both the president and a Business Agent of the local over the years.
B.U. No. 2 Secretary Walter Ruhnke, and along with local president Carl Becherer, were among that local's leaders who brought the 608 member local into the AFL in 1947, chartered as the directly-affiliated "Federal Labor Union #24251". 6 years later the Local would get a Teamster Charter as Local 4 soon after the 1953 "Operation Newark" vote. [RIGHT]
In 1946, he was sent to Pittsburgh, PA by the Teamsters as a member of their "Pittburgh Policy Committee" during the violent "Pennsylvania Beer War", named as an Acting International Organizer for the IBT.Quillin made national news in 1947 by helping design a grain rationing program that allowed large quantities of food stuffs to be shipped to war devastated Europe without causing layoffs among US brewery workers.
[RIGHT] Quillin is congratulated by AFL Teamster Brewery Conference official Ray Schoessling, himself a former Chicago Brewery Worker who took his Keg Beer Drivers Local #344 into the Teamsters in the 30s.
Quillin was the first notable Teamster leader to endorse Hoffa-opponent William Lee in his 1957 attempt to win the presidency of the national union in an effort to keep the AFL-CIO from expelling the union over corruption.
3 years later, after a Newark Evening News article suggested that the Newark Teamster brewery driver locals "disassociated themselves" from the international Teamster leadership, Quillin and Heilmann (below) replied in a Letter to the Editor praising the IBT and Hoffa's leadership which would be reprinted in The Teamster magazine - Jan.1960.
He was involved, but not one of 3 persons convicted and fined, in a 1960 payoff scheme in which his Local 843 would allow Krueger Brewing Co. to save money by eliminating their union retail delivery truck drivers by switching Essex county distribution to wholesaler Supreme Beverage Co., of Newark, represented by IBT Local 863. IBT president Jimmy Hoffa, testifying for the government (suggesting that he and Quillin were unaware of the payoffs) “....agreed it would be better to abolish the 25 jobs in Local 843 rather than jeopardize Krueger’s chances of remaining in business”. Krueger would go out of business the next year, selling its brands to Narragansett Brewing Co., Cranston, RI.
[LEFT]. Quillin would serve as Recording Secretary of the national Teamster Brewery & Soft Drink Workers' Division in the 1950s and 60s. Quillin retired in 1969 as president of Local 843, given a party which 1,000 friends attended "members of the local union, through individual contributions, purchased a Cadillac for Quillin. The keys were presented to him at the dinner" noted The International Teamster magazine (3/1969).
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Herbert Heilmann, secretary of IBT Local #153, also acted as a Trustee and Secretary-Treasurer of Teamster Joint Council 73 in NJ in the 1950s. He would go on to also serve as a Republican State Assemblyman from Union County and would be appointed Assistant Commissioner of Labor and Commerce in 1971.
James Harvin was president of Brewery Workers Local 148 who, along with Herbert Heilmann and other officers, took the local into the AFL Teamsters, becoming Local #153 in 1942.
[RIGHT] Heilmann looks over a Teamster-issued Brewing Industry survey and analysis at a Washington DC Brewery union conference in 1954.
< Merker in the 1960s, "VOTE LOCAL 102" badge on his shirt Benno Merker was a leader of CIO Brewers Workers Local 2 representing Anheuser-Busch workers during the late 1940s-early 1950s when they were the last CIO brewery local in the Newark area.
Delegate to the 1950 UBW Convention.
Merker apparently also worked for the state CIO, getting involved in a 1952 dispute between the AFL Amalgamated Meat Cutters, Local 464 and workers who wished to switch to the CIO.
In 1953, he would be among BW Local 2's leaders who left the CIO union for the AFL's Teamsters, chartered as IBT Local 102 - "Brewery, Industrial, Professional and Public Employees". He would go on to be a long-time officer of that Teamsters' local serving as its secretary-treasurer and president, representing workers at Newark breweries like Rheingold, Pabst and Anheuser-Busch as well as organizing numerous non-brewing industry companies. Along with many other NJ brewery Teamsters, he also opposed Jimmy Hoffa's re-election in 1958 during the period when the AFL-CIO was investigating the Teamsters for corruption, eventually expelling the International in 1957.[ABOVE] Unknown Newark Brewery Workers CIO Local 2 strikers picket Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.
RETURN TO P. BALLANTINE & SONS HOME PAGE
25 years after the Repeal of Prohibition, 4 AFL Teamster locals represented the brewery workers of the Newark region's 6 breweries plus Hoffman Beverage Co*., at the time owned by Pabst. The Joseph Hensler Brewing Co. would close in 1958, the year before the contract expired.
* Hoffman, primarily a soft drink company, built a new brewery at the end of Prohibition, which was purchased by Milwaukee's Pabst Brewing Co. in 1945. Hoffman, incidentally, experienced numerous strikes under both Brewery Workers and Teamster contracts, with the firm even being on the Brewery Workers "UNFAIR" list in 1926 during Prohibition.
Last contract signed between P. Ballantine & Sons and the Teamsters Brewery Locals in Newark. By this time, the contract only covered 2 other local breweries, Pabst and Rheingold in Orange, bargaining collectively under the name
"Essex Brewers' Labor Relations Association",
Anheuser-Busch in Newark bargaining
separately.
NOTES
There was a fifth International Union of United Brewery & Soft Drink Workers of America local in Newark - Soft Drink Workers Local #238 was chartered by the International in October, 1933 (so, technically, still the Prohibition period since full Repeal would not come until December, 1933's 21st Amendment).
The Brewery Workers had a policy of organizing local union by "departments" and not by employer - so, in Newark's case originally there were locals of brewers/brewhouse workers (No. 2), delivery/drivers (No. 148), bottlers (No. 268) and maltsters (No. 171) and, in 1933, soft drink workers (No.238). Local 238, along with 7 other NJ BW locals would switch affiliations in July, 1942 to the AFL Teamsters, becoming IBT Local 125, still in existence.
In many cases, these new NJ Teamster locals of brewery and soft drink workers would eventually expand their jurisdictions well beyond their original ones. They would also frequently change, shorten or use different names for the locals, and the above history often uses these different names.
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