One could say that brewing beer is important to the identity of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Even the city’s baseball team goes by the name the “Brewers.”
And so on this day in Labor History the year was 1953.
The beer brewers in Milwaukee walked off the job in what came to be a ten week strike.
Brewer’s from some of the nation’s best known breweries participated in the strike, including Schlitz, Pabst, Miller and Blatz.
The year before the strike Schlitz set a world record by producing more than 6.5 million barrels of beer.
The strikers were members of the United Brewery Worker’s Union Local 9, part of the CIO.
One of the main issues of the strike was that brewers in the Midwest were typically paid lower wages than those on the West and East coasts.
The Milwaukee brewers wanted their work to be reward with similar wages.
The workers won the strike when Blatz agreed to their demands.
The rest of the Milwaukee brewing companies ousted Blatz from Brewers Association as a result.
The Blatz brewing company had been brewing beer in Milwaukee since before the Civil War, and had produced the city’s first individually bottled beer.
But the other brewers were so angry about Blatz giving in to the workers, they cited “unethical” business methods and kicked them out of their association.
Due to the work stoppage, Anheuser-Busch out of St. Louis took over the top spot in beer brewing in 1953.
The next year at the company’s Christmas Party, the President of Schlitz claimed “Irreparable harm was done to the Milwaukee brewing industry during the 76 day strike of 1953.”
The next time you have a cold one, take a minute to raise your glass and remember the brewers who made that drink possible.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show