85 replies to this topic

[3rd party JKor]

So a buddy of mine works at the distro center outside of Lawrence, and was telling me some horror stories about how this place is run. For starters, NO overtime even though he works OVER 40 hours a week. Second, the plant owner is part of Budweiser's "cost-efficiency" crew, and he fired over half the staff upon taking over the plant! What's worse, as part of their "cost-reduction", he decided to strip the truck drivers of their company provided cell phones and forced them to use THEIR OWN PHONES to talk to customers (consequently all of the managers use iPhones now). Man, what a great company to work for!

Sounds like the plant wasn't running very efficiently if they could can over half the staff and still be in business. Also, I assume that they are still re-imbursing the truck drivers for their minutes, just not providing the hardware. Really, how much does a delivery driver need to talk on the phone? They're not salesmen.

[djinkc]

.........but then again we are talking the biggest shitty beer maker in the world...

It may not be something that most posters here would seek out. But they do a fine job of making what they intend to brew. I would be hard pressed to duplicate some of their beers. Fortunately that is not on my list of things to do.Spent a weekend in the Ozarks with some old friends from St. Louis a few weeks ago - their loyalty to AB is really starting to fade fast. I think the takeover is an ongoing boost for local craft beers in STL. And that is great.

[3rd party JKor]

You gotta give AB credit when it comes to process control (which is 90% of brewing). Craft brewers could never dream of the level of refinement AB has in their process. Sure, the beer sucks, but they choose to brew sucky beer. If they wanted to compete with Russian River, Dogfish Head, etc, they would...and they would probably put them out of business. So, let's be glad that AB et al choose to brew crappy beer.

[phloop]

Salaried FTE's are not required to be paid overtime ... my union has made it so I get the OT though

FTE's rock.

[Patrick C.]

Brewskee, does he work for AB/Inbev or does he work for a distributor? Since there is no AB brewery in Lawrence, I assume he works for a distributor. Like wengared said, this is totally different than working for AB. The distributors generally make a ton of money (ask McCain's in-laws), but I'm sure a lot of them do that by not paying the drivers any more than they have to.

[Stout_fan]

well this just make me feel even better about the fact that i have not bought any BMC for over 2 years now....

AB has NEVER received a penny of my money.

[Deerslyr]

That's the catch, he is on salary but I thought you still got it?

I wish! Salaried employees get paid the premium so that they can't bitch. They are "expected" to work whatever hours are necessary to accomplish the task in a timely and accurate manner.

[Deerslyr]

I forgot to add they don't give ANY free product to employees. Personally, I think it's a piss-poor way to run a business, but then again we are talking the biggest shitty beer maker in the world...

One word... "liability".

[Deerslyr]

You gotta give AB credit when it comes to process control (which is 90% of brewing). Craft brewers could never dream of the level of refinement AB has in their process. Sure, the beer sucks, but they choose to brew sucky beer. If they wanted to compete with Russian River, Dogfish Head, etc, they would...and they would probably put them out of business. So, let's be glad that AB et al choose to brew crappy beer.

I just recently watched a program on one of those "educational" channels (it was either History Channel or Discovery, can't remember which) and they spent the hour at AB in the Lou. One thing I found interesting was that at the end of the fermentation, before bottling, a QC guy tastes samples from ALL of the tanks. He can tell immediately which ones do not need to be modified and those are good to go. The others he separates out based on degrees of maltiness, bitterness, dry or sweet and then proceeds to determine which tanks should be blended to acheive the "brand recognition" in terms of style. You are right... give credit where credit is due! The big boys do know how to produce a consistent beverage. Kind of reminds me of McDonalds... a Big Mac will taste the same anywhere in the United States because of the QC over "how" it is made.

[stellarbrew]

If I'm not mistaken, there have been companies successfully sued by employees, on the basis that they were placed on a salaried status as a way of circumventing overtime laws. As I understand it, there are certain qualifiers for what type of work is classifiable as overtime exempt. Some of the qulaifiers are Managers, Professionals, and Outside Sales People. I think there are a few more categories I am forgetting. The workers who successfully sued were called "managers", but the court found that their duties were not truly managerial, and so they were awarded overtime pay retroactively, going back for years.Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and I am basically talking out of my butt, based on things I'ver heard and half read. Deerslyr, I know you are a lawyer. Can you fill in any on what I am talking about?

[stellarbrew]

You are right... give credit where credit is due! The big boys do know how to produce a consistent beverage. Kind of reminds me of McDonalds... a Big Mac will taste the same anywhere in the United States because of the QC over "how" it is made.

Yep, a Big Mac always tastes the same (as does a Budweiser). But I'll take a charred and juicy burger off the backyard grill over a Big Mac any day of the week. But it's amazing how many people will bypass an awesome burger joint to go to a McDonalds, just because they know exactly what to expect. AB and McDonalds cater to that huge segment of the population who value bland predictability over spicy adventure.

[Deerslyr]

If I'm not mistaken, there have been companies successfully sued by employees, on the basis that they were placed on a salaried status as a way of circumventing overtime laws. As I understand it, there are certain qualifiers for what type of work is classifiable as overtime exempt. Some of the qulaifiers are Managers, Professionals, and Outside Sales People. I think there are a few more categories I am forgetting. The workers who successfully sued were called "managers", but the court found that their duties were not truly managerial, and so they were awarded overtime pay retroactively, going back for years.Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and I am basically talking out of my butt, based on things I'ver heard and half read. Deerslyr, I know you are a lawyer. Can you fill in any on what I am talking about?

Yes, I am a lawyer... and yes, lawyers can talk out of their butts too! :-)CAVEAT: I am not an employment lawyer. No one on this board should consider themselves a "client". Any "opinion" provided hereafter has not been researched and is only an opinion based upon general legal principals of "proving ones case".Employment law is not my strong suit (I didn't even take an employment law class, and have been doing RE Transactions for the last 10 years), but there is nothing to prevent a group of employees from challenging their status. The merits of each case would be different depending on duties, etc. But I suppose a group of drivers "could" challenge their salaried status. However, doing so may put them a step backwards in terms of pay scale, benefits, etc. Let's face it, there are certain advantages to being "salaried" that you don't get as an "hourly". In the end, it's all a trade off, isn't it? There is no true balance in this game.

[3rd party JKor]

I just recently watched a program on one of those "educational" channels (it was either History Channel or Discovery, can't remember which) and they spent the hour at AB in the Lou. One thing I found interesting was that at the end of the fermentation, before bottling, a QC guy tastes samples from ALL of the tanks. He can tell immediately which ones do not need to be modified and those are good to go. The others he separates out based on degrees of maltiness, bitterness, dry or sweet and then proceeds to determine which tanks should be blended to achieve the "brand recognition" in terms of style. You are right... give credit where credit is due! The big boys do know how to produce a consistent beverage. Kind of reminds me of McDonalds... a Big Mac will taste the same anywhere in the United States because of the QC over "how" it is made.

I was working at the brewery as an intern, one of the benefits was doing the daily tastings. Every day the brewing managers, asst. brewmasters and brewmaster would taste the beers from all the tanks, including the fermenters, trying to detect off flavors. They also had extensive analytical reports tracking all kind of chemical compounds in each beer throughout the process. A lot of it was common brewing stuff, diacetyl, DMS, etc. but some of it was stuff you never hear of w.r.t. to brewing, but they had this beer so finely analyzed they're monitoring every little thing. Plus, each person does the daily tastings goes through a tasting evaluation to determine which compounds they are most sensitive to so it would be known if they're opinion is more valid for a certain compound. It was pretty cool.

[japh]

You gotta give AB credit when it comes to process control (which is 90% of brewing). Craft brewers could never dream of the level of refinement AB has in their process. Sure, the beer sucks, but they choose to brew sucky beer.

[stellarbrew]

Haha, quite right. Except that I believe AB is deliberately aiming for that outer ring, rather than for the bullseye.

[3rd party JKor]

Haha, quite right. Except that I believe AB is deliberately aiming for that outer ring, rather than for the bullseye.

correct. if they wanted to make a bitchin' RIS, they certainly could. Pigs would sooner fly out of my arse, of course.

[RommelMagic]

CAVEAT: I am not an employment lawyer. No one on this board should consider themselves a "client". Any "opinion" provided hereafter has not been researched and is only an opinion based upon general legal principals of "proving ones case".

gotta love the disclaimers!

[Deerslyr]

gotta love the disclaimers!

You should see the one attached to my e-mails at work!

[djinkc]

..........CAVEAT: I am not an employment lawyer. No one on this board should consider themselves a "client". Any "opinion" provided hereafter has not been researched and is only an opinion based upon general legal principals of "proving ones case".............

If you think that will stop a Blue Board class action suit you're all wet.

[Deerslyr]

If you think that will stop a Blue Board class action suit you're all wet.

I'm not saying it'll stop anything... I'm just disavowing any participation as "legal counsel". I'd probably join in as a "participant" though! I've been in such a niche area of law that I don't know much else other than commercial retail real estate leasing.