f6twister

Wis. Man Says Beer Choice Cost Him Job

RACINE, Wis. (AP) -- A man may have found out firsthand just how nasty the competition is between the world's two biggest beermakers.

Isac Aguero, 24, said he was fired from his job with a Miller Brewing distributor, the same day a picture appeared in The Journal Times of Racine of him drinking a Bud Light, which is brewed by Anheuser-Busch Co.

The photo, taken Feb. 5, was part of the newspaper's weekly "On the Town" feature, which depicts the city's night life.

Aguero, who had been a forklift operator at CJW Inc. for four years, told the newspaper he was informed by co-workers when he arrived at work Monday that he was in trouble because of the picture.

He said he was called into the general manager's office and told he was fired. Aguero said he was not given a reason and claimed he never had problems with his bosses.

"It was a Saturday and I wasn't at work," he told The Journal Times. "They can't tell me what beverages I can drink.

"Bud Light's my beer of choice, I always drink that. Just because I work there, do I have to change what I drink?"

Thomas Bey, a CJW sales manager, read a statement to The Associated Press Friday and would not answer any questions. He said the company does not publicly discuss past or present employees.

Repeated calls Friday by The Associated Press to the phone number listed for Aguero went unanswered.

© 2005 The Associated Press.

Unless he signed an agreement that he will only drink Miller, I think he has a good case against being fired. What a load of crap!

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animosity

That is insane. If I wasnt so tired I would be enraged.

dirtyrascal7

i smell a lawsuit.

World's King

Fuck Miller.


Drink Budweiser.

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MontanaXVI

I do not know legalities of it all, but I work at a grocery store, firsthand with all the beer reps and pop reps etc, I run the dock. The guys who work for the various companies know when they are hired on do not get caught drinking a competitors product, and some of the companies have even gone so far as to, for example, Pepsi employees are told what places they *should not* eat lunch at because they serve Coke products. Like I said legalities aside I think on my own time what does it matter, now if I am on the clock driving a Pepsi vehicle to do my route in a Pepsi work uniform I think it is resonable of my employers to request I not go to certain places.

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martinguerre

God, what could be worse than getting fired for drinking Bud? At least he could have gotten canned for something that tastes good.

but yeah, unless there's something in the contract, that don't sound too legal.

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clavus

That's like getting fired for eating poop

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splck

Anyone that drinks Bud should get fired....IMO

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nice line eh?

FloydianOne

What is your guy's beer of choice? Be careful what you say...

jstory

Its the same with coke and pepsi (well maybe not off the job but when you are on duty). My father is a vendor for a Pepsi bottling plant, i once made the mistake of bringing a coke there. The security gaurd at the gate had me pour it out, not throw it away but literally pour it out. The sad part is i love pepsi.

Shady

Even if the guy was fired for drinking Bud Light, what's to stop his company from just coming up with some other reason to cover their ass?

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crxforum

A buddy of mine works for Sleeman Brewery. He likes Labatts Blue and Molson Canadian way more than the beers that they make at his brewery. When he was hired they told him about product responsibility. Essentially they said, "We dont care what you drink, just dont drink it while wearing a shirt or something with Sleeman on it. Also dont bad mouth the company."

Dano069

My thoughts exactly.

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Charlatan

That seems like a reasonable request to me...

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Bill O'Rights

And, that's exactly what will happen.

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Pip

That's the way it should be. Demanding a fork-lift operator to be 100% loyal to the company 100% of his time like that is way too much. Shame on Miller.

Tophat665

I don't like it, but I understand it. Bud and Miller demand 100% loyalty from all their employees all the time. It is about marketing.

The only way to give 100% loyalty is to convince yourself that Bud or Miller, respectively, really is the finest beer that money can buy. In order to do that, you have to talk the talk. You do that around other people and that's free advertising. (Or you talk to yourself until you're convinced. Sort of Stuart Smalley, but whatever works.) Once you have convinced yourself, then you become the company's best marketer: a real Joe who is absolutely convinced that there is no better beer.

So it makes sense. (It's how Republicans win electons, too. Demanding loyalty works.)

I don't have to like it. Fortunately, I brew my own beer. If you don't like what these corporations are doing, I suggest you do the same. Always happy to teach.

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rmarshall

Your buddy is a jerk! Sleeman's is WAY better than those other beers.

kutulu

Unless he was wearing his uni this is bullshit and should not be tolerated. How much more are we going to allow from these corporations?

That is perfectly reasonable. I can support that 100%. Anything more is wrong.

kebo

I think there is a bit more to the story than what is posted. After all do you really think a big corporate would risk a wrongful termination lawsuit because of a dockworker drinking another brand of beer on his day off....come on...gimme a break
kevin

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thinktank

See also, Wired article about Microsoft and their employees owning iPods:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66460,00.html
I figure it was his own fault for drinking Bud, but I'm going to have to say that chances are the photo had nothing to do with him being fired. Good luck to him though, all of those yellow fizzy beer companies should be shut down.

soundmotor

Smells more like classic union BS to me than marketing. If you really care about this, take it the next level.

Miller Brewing Co.

Here is what I wrote at the "Ask Miller" link:

"I am shocked that one of your distributors would fire an employee over his choice of beverages on his own time. As long as I can remember, drinking beer has been paired with leisure activities and personal freedom. Your distributor is truly a hypocrite in this regard and that points right up to you. Consider your product boycotted in my home. BTW, I'm down to my last 2 "Champagne of Beers" in my fridge and they will not be replaced."

This kind of crap really peels my onion.

soundmotor

crxforum

My buddy runs the fork lift aswell, for some reason he calls it a tow motor. Anyways they just told him to show the company respect. Dont go around talking about this or that especially if it can be taken the wrong way and be bad press for the company.

They make a whack of different beers at the Sleeman brewery. They make all the popular ones like Honey Brown etc. But they also make Upper Canada, Sapporo (Japanese), Tiger (Singapore), Pilsner Urkel (Urkarnian?), and a whack of other ones that I dont know of.

Also he gets a 24 of Honey brown for $2.40 and then he drinks them and returs them to the beer store for a $2.40 return. So essentially he gets free beer. But only 1 case a week. He also gets all the limited and non public brewings. Like Sleeman Porter Gold that only 100 cases of 24 were made and will never be made again. And other stuff like prototypes. Like there was a beer they made called Super Dark. It was like Guiness 10 fold suposidly. He got a 12 pack of it and was told to do research. The guys who took the beer and came back on monday said that their piss turned green LOL.

Cervantes

That really shitty of them, but then again. Competition is eat or be eaten so there is some kind of twisted logic behind it.
Is it right? No way.

Lawsuit in the making in my eyes.

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soundmotor

Solds like a winner for St. Patrick's Day festivities to me!

soundmotor

Tophat665

<b>soundmotor</b>, I'm down by DC, but I am sure I could put you in touch with people who will help you to learn how to brew your own. On the whole, you can make better beer for less than you can buy it, and you don't have to worry about buying blue (or red) or whether or not the company is a shithead to it's employees or bent on stifiling competition. Also, I notice in your profile that you are interested in metalworking. You could almost certainly trade on that skill to get vast quantities of free materials from brewers check out this brewing unit...
<img src="http://www.morebeer.com/product_images/1/1875.jpg">
Think you could knock something like that together? Morebeer is asking $2K for it. Granted that half that is the pots, and half the rest in materials, it's still 14 or 15 batches brewed free (if someone pays you off dollar for dollar in materials).

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theusername

Your professional and personal life are seperate, an employer should respect. that. I think it's disgusting.

Future commercial: Budweiser hires him and he tells his story why Bud is better than Miller. Making him rich and happy. That'd be pretty funny.

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bacon_masta

That's ridiculous!! It's like my boss saying I can't go to Hardee's because I'm a McDonald's manager. I hope that guy has a good lawyer. He deserves a settlement, or at least for the jerk that fired him to buy him a Bud.

Camelbackcinema

This is a total crock.

I'll take a Budweiser over a Miller any day (read any time it won't cost me my job).

I 2nd that theusernam.

Morania

Fuck Miller.
He should come to Williamsburg and help them brew a man's beer.

m0rpheus

Hey, who is your buddy? I work at Sleeman too and probably know him.

Basically thats what I was told too, and I have heard about a guy (it's a second hand story so I dont know exactly how accurate it is) who was fired because he went out after work, and got pissed drunk and got into a fight and was arrested. The company didnt care what he was drinking but more that he was still wearing his work uniform and it looked bad for the company.

Edit: And BTW, just my little side note to this story, going out for beers in your work uniform... EWW. Believe me I know what I smell like after work and it isnt good. I smell malt-tastic!

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lite campfire

That's the best solution I've heard yet

wnker85

If Bud was on top of thieir game, they should have hired this guy as soon as this report made it out. Just to spite Miller. That would be the best marketing thing to do.

KUGR

One more reason not to drink budweiser!

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MacGuyver

So if I go to SUBWAY while on break from working at McDONALDS should I be fired? 'Cause I do that alot... I hope there aren't any spycams over there. Dunkin Donuts too...

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Zotz

Perhaps if the federal government stepped in and placed restrictions on the press, then pictures of people drinking competitor's products will never again be published in the newspapers.

That really is a nutty thing Miller has done!

Gabbyness

I'm reporting you.

drakers

Sue the shit out of them, that is ridiculous. Its not like he posed for the picture and who cares, our employers can't control what you do in your nightlife (unless it is illegal of course). I hope he gets a few million for the bullshit he has gone through.

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wnker85

That's ridiculous. A lawsuit isn't going to settle anything. Thats just bad ethics. And anyways, if he did a good job, then he most likely would still have a job. Thats why this is such a shocking thing, it doesn't happen all the time.

Antikarma

This is why we should all drink Old Stock.


I'm just sayin', ya know.

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