EAST PROVIDENCE, RI—Teamsters Local 251, a labor union based in East Providence that represents over 6,300 workers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, has successfully rallied against a deal to sell McLaughlin & Moran (M&M), Rhode Island’s only Budweiser distributorship, to C & C distributors, a competitor owned by the Mancini family.
Management of M&M announced Monday that the deal to sell the company would not go forward after the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation (DBR) refused to approve the license transfer without investigating Mancini’s potential violation of prohibitions on chain store alcohol sales, said a press release from Teamsters Local 251.
“We represent workers at M&M and several Mancini companies,” said Matt Taibi, Teamsters Local 251 Secretary-Treasurer, in a statement. “We tried to negotiate a fair deal with Mancini but they demanded our members take pay cuts of $7 or more per hour and give up their pension.”
Mancini applied to the Department of Business Regulation (DBR) in July 2020 for approval to transfer M&M’s wholesale liquor license to one of their companies. Teamster members and supporters overflowed the virtual hearing on October 30, coming out in strong opposition.
“We had been in contact with the Governor and other supportive politicians to state our position on the deal,” Taibi said. “We flooded the DBR with petitions signed by bar, restaurant and liquor store owners and their patrons. We ran a full-page newspaper ad and even put a billboard up on I-95 to alert consumers about this shady deal.”
On Dec. 14, DBR Director Elizabeth M. Tanner announced that the license transfer would not be immediately approved and the M&M sale was dropped just days later.
“We’re proud that Teamsters joined with the community and small business to shine a light on a corporation that wouldn’t negotiate a fair deal,” said Sean O’Brien, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Joint Council 10, which represents over 55,000 workers throughout New England. “If they want a fight in the boardroom, the courtroom, or the streets, we’ll take them on every time in the name of doing what’s best for workers.”
“This will be the best Christmas my family has had in a long time,” said Robert Medeiros, who has been an M&M driver for over 20 years. “My family is healthy and my wages and pension are safe.”
