USA: Teamsters ratify SAB-Miller new three-year contract agreement

Teamster members working at the South African Brewery-Miller brewery in Irwindale voted July 29 to accept a new three-year contract agreement, according to the union, CBS released July 29.

The new agreement provides higher wages, a reduction in the amount members pay for health care, plus a higher contribution by the company into employees' pensions.

"Our members, through their hard work, have helped SAB-Miller improve their market share over the past few years," said Rene Medrano, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 896 in Los Angeles.

"We were successful, with the assistance of the Teamsters Brewery and Soft Drink Workers Conference, in negotiating a contract which increases wages, lowers the amount each employee pays for health care and raises the amount the company pays into the employees' pension plan," she said.

Teamsters at SAB-Miller in Irwindale will pay nothing for their health care costs until October 2006 as part of the reduction in health care costs. Previously they had been paying $52 a month. By the third and final year of the agreement, the employer will be paying $1,000 per employee towards health care costs, the union said.