In early February, around 70 workers at Anchor Brewing Co.’s facilities, located on DeHaro Street in Potrero Hill, announced their intention to form a union. They will begin voting on Wednesday, March 13.
Jon Ezell is one of those workers, and it is no wonder employees like him want to unionize. Per Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local’s columnist and managing editor, from his Feb. 25 piece on the organizing effort:
“ … Jon Ezell, a tour guide turned bottling worker, finds himself living in a two-bedroom U.C. Berkeley student apartment in Albany with his grad student wife, his 7-year-old, his 5-year-old, his 5-month-old baby, and either his mother-in-law or father living in — because who can afford child care? In fact, had his wife stopped attending classes following the birth of their most recent child, she would have lost her scholarships and the family would have been out of this apartment. She was back in class one week later.
He is making $19.25 an hour, which comes out to $38,500 a year. He’s being trained on the machinery by men earning $16.50 an hour.”
On this episode of Listen Local, Eskenazi and Julian Mark talk to Ezell about why he got into the beer business, why he wants to stay, and how a union will benefit him and his colleagues.
Listen in:
