Ex-Anchor Brewing employees say they want their jobs back

As Anchor Brewing prepares to reopen under new ownership, many of its former employees say they'd return if offered a job, the workers' former union said this week.

Why it matters: Some Anchor Brewing employees had previously expressed interest in purchasing the brewery's assets, but said they bowed out from the bidding process due to competing bids.

Driving the news: Nearly 77% of Anchor Union workers say they would return to work if offered a job, according to a press release Monday from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents the Anchor Union.

• Before Anchor Brewing shut down, the union's 39 members represented about two-thirds of all employees at the brewery, the New York Times reports .

What they're saying: "No one knows better how to brew and market Anchor beer better than us," Thomas Delany, a former employee, said in the written statement.

Context: In July 2023, shortly after Anchor announced its plans to close , a group of former Anchor Brewery workers and union members, the Anchor SF Cooperative, proposed a plan to buy the brewery and run it as a worker cooperative .

• This past January, however, the cooperative announced its decision not to place a bid on Anchor's assets due to competing bid amounts.
• Last month , the billionaire owner behind yogurt brand Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, announced his family office's acquisition of Anchor Brewing's assets.

Ulukaya previously said he would hire back as many former employees as possible, but didn't know whether the union would be part of the new operations, the San Francisco Chronicle reports .

• Ulukaya did not respond to Axios' request for comment by the time of publication.

What's next: It's still unclear exactly when the brewery will reopen, but Ulukaya said last month that he'd like to resume operations in time for Christmas.

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