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Mikkeller, a Danish brewery with American outposts and taste-making prominence in the global craft beer industry, has come under heavy fire over the past few months for its dismal response to sexual harassment and workplace discrimination allegations spanning back years. Things came to a head last week as activists successfully pressured more than two dozen breweries to withdraw from Mikkeller’s prestigious, invitation-only beer festival. My colleague (and Friend of Fingers!) Kate Bernot has been all over this story for Good Beer Hunting; read her latest report evaluating the sincerity of the company’s newly reconciliatory posture.
The Mikkeller episode is the latest shockwave to ripple out from craft brewing’s May 2021 reckoning over women and nonbinary workers’ often-awful experiences in the industry. Watching it unfold in real time has me once again wondering:
What can craft beer workers do about bad brewery bosses? And maybe more importantly: what should they do?
If you have thoughts on this, I hope you’ll join me in the comments below. All are welcome, whether you work in the industry, or just like drinking beer and have perspective on combating workplace discrimination and harassment.
I should note that this isn’t the first time I’ve pondered this question. Back in May, with years of backlogged allegations against abusive craft brewery bosses pouring forth from Brienne Allan’s Instagram account, I wrote a column for VinePair about the moment’s ripeness for worker-led collective action. With workers at a few breweries withholding their labor over reports of their bosses’ transgressions, I imagined what those stoppages could portend for the future of worker power in the traditionally non-union craft beer business:
When workers are truly organized, when they truly control production, they have leverage over a firm’s profits. That’s the ballgame. There are plenty of bad bosses in craft beer who don’t care about women’s safety and wellbeing; there are none who don’t care about money.
Fast forward five months. There has been no massive wave of labor organizing in the craft brewing industry, which is not surprising. Until the Mikkeller flare-up, things seemed to have mostly returned to status quo, even despite activists (including Allan) launching an organization, Brave Noise, with the hopes of turning the momentum from May into a sustained movement.
The work of holding brewers accountable to their promises to “do better” has largely fallen on these advocates, some of whom—rightly, I think—have argued that victims of abuse shouldn’t be the ones required to confront and social-media shame those who would otherwise consort with alleged abusers. (This thread, from writer Robin LeBlanc, sums the sentiments up pretty well.) I agree: I don’t think it’s a fair, efficient, or terribly productive way to pursue change. But who else can do this work, and with what leverage? Absent answers to those questions, the social media shame-game is how accountability is meted out in the craft brewing business (and most other businesses, for that matter.) The outcomes have been a real mixed bag.
For a vision of alternative, worker-led accountability, I reached out to Anders Bloomquist, a warehouse specialist at Fair State Brewing Cooperative in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As Fingers reported last month, the Twin Cities’ craft beverage workforce has emerged as a hotbed for unionism in the fractured industry, with Fair State’s successful union drive helping to build momentum for what has turned into a years-long tear of labor organizing at the metro’s distilleries, breweries, and coffee shops.
Fair State was slated to go to Mikkeller’s festival, but as activists drew attention to the Danish brewer’s inaction on its workplace issues, it pulled out of the event. I asked Bloomquist what role the union had in making this decision. Here’s what he told me (emphasis mine):
We had a big company wide conference call on Tuesday where a significant percentage of both management & union employees expressed their thoughts. I don't think a single union member expressed anything other than the need for us to decline our invitation […] I'm very convinced that this level of debate was at least in part a response to the fact that company leadership knows they need to be cognizant of the collective opinion that is always being cultivated among union members, and I know that our unified opposition to attending played a role in the final decision.
You could argue that Fair State never should have agreed to go to Mikkeller’s festival in the first place, and should not get points for withdrawing. Maybe so. But that sort of scorekeeping is a lot less interesting to me than the internal mechanics Bloomquist described, and the fact that he was comfortable describing them to a reporter at all. (A lot of this sort of in-house stuff stays unacknowledged when workers worry about retaliation from their bosses for speaking to the press.)
Both are outcomes of a healthy, democratic, worker-led union. When employees are organized, they’re empowered to speak their minds, and exercise leverage—their labor—to make sure their bosses listen. And for intractable, shop-floor problems like workplace abuse, which often go unreported, unacknowledged by HR, or curiously undiscovered by “independent” third-party investigations, no one is better positioned for the day-in, day-out work of holding the bosses accountable than workers themselves.
This does not mean that unions always get everything exactly right, or that they are irreproachable bastions of progressivism. This shit is way messier than that. But having reported on these issuesfor years, I am increasingly convinced that if the craft brewing industry is going to successfully rid itself of the warts checkering its underbelly, workers will have to lead the way. To do that, they’ll need power, and as the old labor anthem goes: there is power in a union.
***
That’s my take. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What’s yours? Do you think labor organizing can serve as an effective counterweight to the craft brewing industry’s workplace ills? Are you optimistic that top-down change (in the form of manager trainings, workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, etc.) will deliver more meaningful results? If you work in the industry, I’d love to hear your perspective. And if you don’t: I’d love to hear what you think of all this, and how much it matters to you when deciding which breweries to patronize. See you in the 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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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 :)