Opinion | Hummel: Missouri’s Union Beer Workers Deserve a Level Playing Field

I have spent most of my adult life fighting for working people. Before I served in the Missouri Legislature as a State Representative, a State Senator, and at one point as House Minority Leader, I worked as a laborer. In many ways, the latter role was the most formative for my stance on today’s labor issues. Working with your hands is a rewarding experience that more Americans should get to have. But preserving these jobs in our country will mean enacting trade policies that help prevent them from being lost to other nations.

Missouri has a deep and proud tradition in the American brewing industry. St. Louis is home to one of the most recognizable breweries in the world. The men and women who work in Missouri’s brewing sector are union workers who enjoy good wages, strong benefits, and safe working conditions. Their jobs represent exactly the kind of manufacturing employment that American labor policy should be working to protect.

That is why, as President of the Missouri AFL-CIO, I am urging the Trump Administration to impose tariffs on beer imported from Mexico.

The AFL-CIO is not alone in this position. Nine national unions, including the Teamsters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the United Steelworkers, the Machinists, and others have formally called on the Administration to act. Closer to home, IBEW Local 1 in St. Louis has urged the Administration to impose tariffs on Mexican beer imports. Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562 in Earth City has also weighed in on the issue: “a level playing field between domestic producers and importers will protect American jobs and keep the brewing industry strong.” Missouri workers know all too well what happens when unfair foreign competition goes unchecked. We do not want to see the American beer industry go the way of so many others.

To be clear, I am not suggesting we give American breweries an unfair advantage in the global marketplace. Rather, I merely hope to see us compensate for the unfair disadvantages they currently face. American union brewery workers earn an average of nearly $80,000 a year. They receive health benefits, operate under workplace safety standards, and contribute to the communities where they live and work. Mexican brewery workers, by comparison, earn approximately $3,700 a year. Mexican producers also pay less in taxes, face far lighter regulatory requirements, and source their aluminum from China rather than from American suppliers. It is difficult to overstate how hard it is for domestic brewers to compete with those in Mexico.

The consequences are already apparent. Imported beer now accounts for nearly 25 percent of the U.S. market, with more than 80 percent of those imports coming from Mexico. The share of imported beer in the U.S. is up from just 14 percent of the total market in 2013. If current trends continue, imports could reach 40 percent of U.S. consumption, with estimated GDP losses of up to $23 billion. And the damage is not limited to brewery workers. Glass and aluminum workers, whose plants are often located near brewing operations, are feeling it too. This is a manufacturing ecosystem, and when one part weakens, the impact travels.

When we allow production to migrate to countries where workers earn poverty wages and safety regulations are minimal, we are not just threatening the workers who lose their jobs but are also pulling down the floor for everyone who competes in those markets. Tariffs are a mechanism for ensuring that trade policy reflects the labor standards it is meant to protect.

At the Missouri AFL-CIO, we have been clear: our union jobs set high standards for wages and working conditions, and protecting those standards means protecting and expanding the U.S. beer industry. That is the standard we are fighting to defend. A tariff on beer imported from Mexico is not a favor to any single company. It is a policy choice about whether American workers compete on a fair basis or are simply asked to absorb the cost of another country’s cheaper labor until the work can no longer survive here at all.

I urge the Trump Administration to protect American jobs and American manufacturing by imposing tariffs on beer imported from Mexico.

Jake Hummel

President of the Missouri AFL-CIO. He previously served in the Missouri General Assembly as a State Representative, State Senator, and House Minority Leader.