This likely translates to the big brewers don’t like this explosion of competition so they create a much tighter and more costly regulatory environment which will close down the small guys and provide a larger barrier for entry. They use the few people involved in freak accidents and their predatory lawyers to generate quotes such as “this could have been avoided” and “something needs to be done about this epidemic” to gain control. It’s happening in every industry as the division between large and small grows in every area of our economy due to flawed Keynesian monetary policies. It’s sad but true.
Anheuser Bush owns a 32.2% share of the deceptively named “Craft Brewers Allaince”, thus Redhook does not meet the definition of “craft beer” cited in the article.
I more shocked by the number of violations by the big brewers… For the smaller players, as always, underwriters need to evaluate each risk on it’s own merits…
Providing a safe working environment is a requirement that applies to both large and small brewers — as well as to every other employer in this country. The problem is that too many employers are more concerned with putting a profit in their pockets than anything else.
I think a lot of small craft breweries are started by entrepreneurs with a passion for beer, and are not necessarily focused on profits at all costs. Obviously profit is desireable and necessary to keep the business viable, but I think worker safety is important at most breweries. It is important to look at experience levels just as it is at similar food processing facilities such as dairies.
The headline case is a high profile incident and very sad, but I don’t know how representative it is of safety practices in the brewing industry. It’s not like he was a low-paid employee whose boss sent him into a dangerous piece of equipment – he was (presumably) a specialized stainless welding contractor.
I agree youngin’ – I don’t think it is a greedy issue, it is a focus issue of many times the jobs being done is something that they would do themselves when starting out and the brewer knows what to do to stay safe, but is not training workers. Since there is an Association, I would hope that they would step up to work on communicating safety issues, maybe contract with safety experts to do inspections for their members at a discounted price to help their members better understand the problems.
This likely translates to the big brewers don’t like this explosion of competition so they create a much tighter and more costly regulatory environment which will close down the small guys and provide a larger barrier for entry. They use the few people involved in freak accidents and their predatory lawyers to generate quotes such as “this could have been avoided” and “something needs to be done about this epidemic” to gain control. It’s happening in every industry as the division between large and small grows in every area of our economy due to flawed Keynesian monetary policies. It’s sad but true.
Anheuser Bush owns a 32.2% share of the deceptively named “Craft Brewers Allaince”, thus Redhook does not meet the definition of “craft beer” cited in the article.
I more shocked by the number of violations by the big brewers… For the smaller players, as always, underwriters need to evaluate each risk on it’s own merits…
Providing a safe working environment is a requirement that applies to both large and small brewers — as well as to every other employer in this country. The problem is that too many employers are more concerned with putting a profit in their pockets than anything else.
I think a lot of small craft breweries are started by entrepreneurs with a passion for beer, and are not necessarily focused on profits at all costs. Obviously profit is desireable and necessary to keep the business viable, but I think worker safety is important at most breweries. It is important to look at experience levels just as it is at similar food processing facilities such as dairies.
The headline case is a high profile incident and very sad, but I don’t know how representative it is of safety practices in the brewing industry. It’s not like he was a low-paid employee whose boss sent him into a dangerous piece of equipment – he was (presumably) a specialized stainless welding contractor.
I agree youngin’ – I don’t think it is a greedy issue, it is a focus issue of many times the jobs being done is something that they would do themselves when starting out and the brewer knows what to do to stay safe, but is not training workers. Since there is an Association, I would hope that they would step up to work on communicating safety issues, maybe contract with safety experts to do inspections for their members at a discounted price to help their members better understand the problems.