Big Brewers and US craft brewing: the romance is over
USA | The announcement that AB-InBev will close Elysian’s production brewery in Seattle, effective 31 December, led to a lively debate over AB-InBev’s motives. Some observers speculated that it was the decision by a group of 30 workers at the facility to join the Teamsters union in August 2023, which mightily displeased its owner. When the workers decided to go on strike in October over protracted contract negotiations, AB-InBev retaliated by shuttering the brewery. The insinuation does not stand up to reason. Thousands of AB-InBev’s workers in the US are unionised.