Union Anchor Beer Workers to Chobani Oligarch: We Want Our Jobs Back

Beer may not be, but rumors are certainly starting to bubble at Anchor Brewery in Potrero Hill. Shuttered in 2023 by Sapporo after a long second contract negotiation with the brewery’s union, industry insiders and neighbors have reported the smell of beer, movement, and turned on lights at the historic factory and tap room. 

“I actually live really close to the brewery,” said Ryan Poulos, a worker who operated Anchor’s bottle and can fillers prior to the brewery’s closing. “Every time I pass by there, I always see lights on and people kind of at the front door. So I know personally there's some kind of activity there. I'm just not a hundred percent sure what it is.”

Founded in 1896, Anchor is considered by many the oldest craft brewer in the country.  Japanese beer giant Sapporo infamously shut it down in 2023 citing declining beer sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving workers shocked. 

“I was the union rep at Anchor when it closed,” said Pedro de Sá, ILWU Local 6 business agent. “I remember the day it happened and how much it affected the people working there and the attachment that people had to that job.” 

But then Hamdi Ulukaya, billionaire CEO of Chobani, bought the company in 2024. The site — which housed both the brewery and a public tap room — has been dormant since. Until now, and the brewery’s former unionized workers want to make sure that they are part of the re-opening. That’s why workers hosted a drink-in at BuzzWorks bar in SOMA this Tuesday. “Let's try and pull together and see if we can talk to this guy and be like, ‘Hey, we're very passionate and we want to help you with this. Let's be a team together,’” said Patrick Costello, who worked as both a bartender and on the production line and served as the union’s first shop steward of the nation’s first craft brewery union. 

Costello, who worked at Anchor for 8 years, together with many other workers, saw Anchor as a significant part of his life. ”We were actually going to have our wedding at Anchor, but we got the news of the closure two months before we had it scheduled. I feel like [Sapporo] did that intentionally, but I can't prove it.”

For Costello, the union, and their later effort to transform Anchor into a worker-owned co-op, inspired Ulukaya to purchase the beer-maker. “If it wasn't for us taking that huge swing and getting it to where it was international attention that hey, this brewery is closing down, the workers are trying to buy it back, and they're trying to make it a union that this guy would've never even heard of it.”

Ultimately the inordinate prices of San Francisco real estate thwarted the co-op effort. “The co-op space I feel like would be really cool to see, especially in a brewery, especially with the union. But unfortunately it didn't happen. The money that was involved with buying it back, San Francisco real estate is insane. And Anchor was basically a whole city block in one of the best neighborhoods in the city, so it was going to be damn near possible,” said Costello. 

But he and his comrades want to make sure any future bottles brewed in Potrero still read “Union made in San Francisco.” 

At BuzzWorks, between rounds of vintage Anchor preserved by one of the bartenders, it was clear that the workers, many of whom were San Francisco-born and raised and hadn’t seen each other in years, looked back fondly on their time at Anchor and in the union because of the brewery’s long history in San Francisco. “Honestly, it was kind of the best job I ever had,” said Thomas Delany, who worked as a brewery tour guide. “Not only was the job fun, but when you learn the history of Anchor, you also learn the history of San Francisco. They've been through all the earthquakes, all the fires, fell down, rebuilt themselves back up. So one of the reasons I really felt connected with the company was being from the city. So just having that connection to be like, oh, this is San Francisco built, this is San Francisco made.”

Anchor’s unique SF history is what brought former Democratic Socialist of America District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston there. “It's just Anchor’s quintessentially San Francisco and it's a union beer and it's got to stay that way.”

Anchor was, well, one of the anchors of the Potrero neighborhood, and its closing foretold that of beloved bar Thee Parkside (closing July 5th) and live music venue Bottom of the Hill (closing at the end of this year). 

“I think it's unfortunate. I think Anchor closing kind of led to a lot of that. We were able to support the businesses around us, and they supported us. And then with us leaving, it left a big gap and it's affecting the community a lot,” said Rob, a former tap room supervisor who declined to give his full name. 

“Thee Parkside was where we had some of our first union organizing meetings,” said Costello. Though workers in breweries and bars often struggle to unionize, bars have been integral third spaces for unionization efforts across other industries. 

Frederick Smith, who became one of the first union-certified bartenders in the city through the Anchor union, echoed the same sentiment. “This has been the oldest craft brewery in the past 150 years. It’s been the city. Why wouldn't we keep this in the city? This is for the people. Beer for the people, beer for the community. What else can I say? It's literally the perfect trifecta.”

Though workers and ILWU have reached out to Ulukaya, they haven’t heard any response. But their message is as crisp and clear as good beer. “We want to come back,” said Poulos, “We want to come back, and we want to make beer for you guys.”