BREWERY WORKERS REJECT CONTRACT; UNION SEEKS NEGOTIATIONS.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Anheuser-Busch workers on Friday overwhelmingly rejected contracts that would have raised their base pay by $5,200 over five years, but which union officials said included a host of other changes they deemed unacceptable.

But the Teamsters will try to go back to the negotiating table with management and a strike is not on the horizon, said Ed Kinsbursky, Teamsters Local 896 chief shop steward for brewing in the company's Van Nuys plant.

The vote involved separate contracts for individual breweries as well as a contract for Anheuser-Busch workers overall, he said.

Van Nuys bottlers and brewers rejected their contract 506 to 74, and quality assurance workers rejected theirs 46 to 19, Kinsbursky said. Nationally, the teamsters voted 5,447 to 1,652 against Anheuser-Busch's final offer, he said.

Kinsbursky said the issue wasn't about money, but about changes to rules regarding vacation pay, arbitration, use of part-time and temporary help and other issues which he said management foisted on workers without negotiating.

``Money is not the issue of this contract,'' he said. ``Some of these are minor issues. The question is they asked for everything and didn't want to give us anything.''

Local Anheuser-Busch officials could not be reached for comment late Friday.

According to Kinsbursky, local workers now average $21.12 an hour, or $43,929.60 a year. Under the contract proposed by the company, hourly wages would rise 40 cents this year, 50 cents each of the next two years, and 55 cents each of the following two years, for a total of $49,129.60.