BREWERY PROTECTED FROM CRY OF `RATS'; COURT RULES UNION DISPUTE SIGN UNFAIR.

Byline: Ivan Sciupac Daily News Staff Writer

Anheuser-Busch, which uses frogs and lizards to sell its Budweiser beer, won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday that stops a union from using a banner that says the Van Nuys brewery has rats.

The court let stand a federal judge's order, which forced Carpenters Local 209 to remove a banner at the brewery that declared: ``Budweiser has rats in their brewery.''

A union attorney said Monday that the local meant that the rats are company officials, not actual rodents.

But the court found that the brewery is rodent-free and therefore the banner was deceptive.

The union contends the word still fits because Anheuser-Busch is allowing a replacement contractor to pay workers less than prevailing wage, said union attorney Gerald Selvo.

``The position of my client has not changed,'' Selvo said. ``(It) continues to use the word `rat' and is entitled to do so.''

Royce J. Estes, vice president and deputy general counsel for Anheuser-Busch, welcomed the court's decision about the banner in a written statement Monday. He made no reference, however, to the union dispute.

``Anheuser-Busch is very pleased that the Supreme Court has vindicated our rights in this case,'' the statement says. ``We take great pride in all our products and the quality associated with them, and our company. That has been our position in this case, all along.''

Carpenters Local 209 took issue with Anheuser-Busch last year, contending that it replaced a union construction contractor with one that did not meet area labor standards in the wages or benefits.

To publicize their position, union members displayed a 5-foot-by-20-foot banner stating in letters 12 and 6 inches tall that ``Budweiser has rats in their brewery.'' In letters 5 inches tall, the banner also said: ``Local 209 labor dispute with rat contractor H.M.S.''

Calling the banner deceptive, 9th Circuit Court Judge James Ideman barred use of the word ``rats'' in any union banner. Ideman said the union's members ``are not advertising facts; they are advertising falsehoods and their methods involve fraud'' because they knew the Van Nuys plant was rodent-free.

The Supreme Court, without comment, left Ideman's injunction intact.

Although it is unclear what action the union will take next, it will not be putting the banner back up at the Van Nuys facility. The union appealed the injunction as a matter of principle, Selvo said.

``We believe the First Amendment gives the union the right to use the language the way it sees fit,'' he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.