As a Strike Looms, Elysian's Great Pumpkin Beer Fest Returns

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The Great Pumpkin is back, albeit with something of a dark cloud looming overhead

First of all, Elysian Brewing’s super-popular Great Pumpkin Beer Fest happens this coming Friday and Saturday at Seattle Center. It’s the 20th anniversary of the event, which started out as a very humble affair that was dreamt into reality by Dick Cantwell, who was then the head brewer and co-owner at Elysian Brewing. The event is no longer humble. It’s huge

Dick once told me that the event was as much about the pumpkin itself as it was about the pumpkin beer. It’s about the smile-inducing absurdity of the pumpkin and people’s seemingly universal love of the gourd. He also said the event provided a great excuse to dress in orange. Dick Cantwell, along with his whimsical and irreverent thinking, left the company shortly after Anheuser-Bush acquired Elysian Brewing in 2015. But the Great Pumpkin Beer Fest lives on.

Before you roll your eyes and chastize me for even mentioning a brewery owned by Anheuser-Busch, know that the event is a fundraiser for a great cause: The Vera Project. Also, know that the event is attended by a lot of fun-loving people who enjoy the beer and the carnival atmosphere, want to support a great local organization, and don’t care about the whole A-B thing. If you choose not to attend, that’s fine, but don’t yuck on someone else’s yum.

Typically, the official kickoff to the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival happens the weekend before the event at the brewery: the official Great Pumpkin Weigh-In, which was scheduled for September 28th this year. That event is a party unto itself. This year, the party was abruptly canceled because employees and their union decided to have a rally that day. Read on.

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Strike on the horizon?

Elysian Brewing’s employees are creeping closer to a strike. In August 2023 the employees voted 62 percent in favor of unionizing (read it). The workers became part of Teamsters Local 117. The move impacted 33 employees at the Seattle brewery: hourly packaging employees, hourly brewing employees (except innovation brewers), hourly Quality Assurance (QA) employees, and hourly warehouse employees. Local union leadership said it took Anheuser-Busch four months to meet with the employees and the union following the unionization vote.

The employees and their union are negotiating a contract with parent company Anheuser-Busch, but after many fruitless months, the negotiations have stalled. A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch told KIRO 7 that the company has met with the union a dozen times since the initial meeting last December. They said Anheuser-Busch is now waiting for the union to return to the bargaining table.

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At a rally last weekend, the union voiced its concern with A-B’s stone-faced approach and its latest unsatisfactory offer. One Elysian Brewing employee told KIRO 7, “They’re just not willing to give us what we’re worth. They’re acting like we’re just a bunch of hourly hired hands, that what we do isn’t important or technical or difficult work.” Adding, “…Everyone here can see us. Everyone is honking for us, showing support.”

At the same time, not all of Elysian’s employees are happy with how things have progressed since the unionization vote. One longtime employee tells the Washington Beer Blog, “Enough eligible employees have lost interest in the attempt altogether. They have gathered enough signatures on a petition for a new vote to abandon the unionization efforts. That vote is tomorrow (October 1st). So as likely as a potential strike still is, so is the termination of the whole thing.”

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