3 Comments

First, thank you for this great piece. Secondly, I am in the industry and I am pretty outspoken about envisioning a different craft beer industry where inclusivity and respect are the norms, just like registering new beers for label approval, it should be ingrained in our system (ideally). I do like the idea of unionizing, but I also know that realistically that might not be possible for the entire industry.

Unfortunately, cultural change is usually driven by marginalized communities, instead of the majority. Not ethically right, but it's reality. It's also hard and messy. It's going to take time, but I can't express enough how important education is in this situation. For breweries to grasp the level of organizational change that has to occur to avoid gender-based harassment and violence, it's going to take all hands on deck to put resources and guides and suggestions into the hands of decision-makers to drive change from within - that includes you, sir, as an industry journalist. We all need to pitch in, and articles like this, and the likes from Kate, Beth, Jess, Ruvani, and beyond, are exactly what our industry needs to keep this topic on everyone's mind.

IMO, if you pull back the curtain, it's not status quo. CEOs have been removed, boards have been evicted, managers fired, teams reworked - there are more companies now in our industry with codes of conduct than I have ever seen in my decade-plus career in this industry. But is our work done? Absolutely f-ing not.

It's going to take loud voices that resonate with our target audience to be a catalyst for change, so if you're a white, cis, male reading this, here's your call to action. We need big voices that the dominant majority will listen to and follow. We need support for marginalized communities that are struggling to be heard for more than being overly sensitive and not "one of the guys." It's going to take influential craft beer names stepping up, setting new standards, disrupting the current system, and showing small to medium-sized organizations that you can be socially just and run a profitable business. It's going to take more careful consideration of the people that we put in leadership positions. We need to standardize interviews, employee reviews, and promotions.

When one community in the majority dominates those at the margins, you will always have oppression, harassment, violence, and harm. It's a social construct of white supremacist culture that is killing our industry workforce. Eventually, there will be no one left if we don't institute change. When you design systems to benefit the most marginalized people, everyone benefits.

And for as frightening as I just made this sound, I'm optimistic. We're having the conversations to do the work. Organizations can explore ideas of flat management structures, they can adopt systems of checks and balances, like 3rd party reporting services, prevention training (continuous, not one and done), ESOPs, B-corps, authentic management, etc. - there are options for organizations of all sizes. To quote Anna from Frozen 2 (can you tell I'm a mom?), all we have to do is the next right thing. Just pick one.

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Thanks for the thoughtful response, Julie! You have obviously given this a lot of thought. We obviously agree that the industry desperately needs change. Some follow-ups/questions/reactions:

> What factors make unionizing not a realistic possibility across the industry, in your view?

> You're right that there have been some shakeups since May 2021. I think that's great for those places, genuinely. I also don't see those firings/code implementations/etc. having any meaningful effect on the industry at large; they seem to be more stars in a dark sky than anything else. I.e., not the watershed people were hoping for in the aftermath of the "@ratmagnet revelations" (as I've come to think of them.) Do you see those changes as transformative at an industry level at this point? Do you think they are ebbing or flowing?

> I (respectfully!) disagree that more education on its own will precipitate change. I think more education and resources are net-goods, but without the threat of meaningful consequences, the ownership class in this (and I think, every) industry will never consider the implementation of those codes of conduct (et al.) at the same priority level that their workers do.

> Your point about white supremacist culture killing the industry workforce is interesting. I certainly buy that race is an important prism for analyzing this industry's ills, and have written on that in the past. What role do you see (if any) for the class analysis in making over the craft beer business, and how do you think that role should intersect with racial analysis' role?

If you can believe it, I have seen neither Frozens. Can you tell I'm not a mom?

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Don't ever feel obligated to say respectfully disagree. I love differing opinions, it's an opportunity to learn more from each other. Happy to explore this more with you.

> It's not that I don't think our industry is capable of unionization, but I don't think the knowledge level is there for most owners/operators/employees. i.e. if you grabbed a random shift brewer and asked them what a union structure would entail, I don't think they would be able to answer that question

> When a disruptive, public reckoning ensues, whether it's race or gender-focused, humans have an inherent action bias that drives us to want to see immediate, swift action on a grand scale (watershed), but true organizational and cultural change doesn't happen that quickly. I do think the small actions being taken by organizations are helping, they just aren't juicy enough for social media, but that doesn't discount the amount of harm they are preventing for thousands of workers in our industry, and every small action is an improvement over the old system. Hopefully, these small actions will snowball into a more widely adopted practice of protecting workers and customers. Personally, I think they are still flowing, it just doesn't get much recognition in the media.

> You're right, education can't be the only tactic we employ to ignite change, but I do think it plays a major role. I do agree that call-outs are necessary to bring more attention to this issue, but I am passionately against cancel culture. I think that cancel culture perpetuates harm in the same way that the dominant majority in our industry uses oppression to punish those that speak up about inclusivity and respectful workplaces.

> Honestly, I didn't intend to mix race into this conversation (not that it's not immensely important to address as well), I meant that systems of oppression are often used in white supremacist cultures. It's a tool to keep marginalized communities in their place. Apologies if that wasn't clear. I feel like your final questions deserve a whole new thread.

> You're not a mom?? I had no idea :)

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