“We were here working. We were grinding,” said Art Plummer, a Teamsters Local 896 member at Anheuser-Busch’s Van Nuys, Calif., brewery. “We constantly show up. And now all we’re asking is that the company show up for us and give us a fair contract.”

5,000 Teamsters are united for a strong contract at all 12 of Anheuser-Busch’s U.S. breweries, with practice pickets growing by the day in the lead up to the Feb. 29 expiration of the current contract.

Teamsters are demanding job security and real wage increases. Members at Anheuser-Busch voted by 99 percent to authorize a strike if this company doesn’t come to terms on the contract Teamsters worked hard for and earned.

“We did what it took to get this company to be profitable. Now we’re asking for them to share that with us,” Plummer said.