Beer strike tests St. Louis' loyalties.

AP--It just wasn't Bill Deida's night. Seated at his usual barstool and wearing a signature red Cardinals shirt last week, Deida watched his home team lose a playoff game to the Houston Astros.

Making matters worse, he said, his mug was filled with Miller Lite. "It's nothing like Budweiser," Deida complained.

Drinking Miller beer nearly amounts to heresy in St. Louis, home of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. In this city, beer politics makes Washington look nonpartisan. Residents claim fierce loyalty to Budweiser as the hometown product and rarely speak kind words about the competition.

Deida didn't cross party lines willingly. A local labor dispute is forcing residents to choose between two of the city's deepest loyalties: Anheuser-Busch beer and unionized workers. A group of striking Teamsters is asking residents to boycott the hometown brew. At the same time, baseball's playoffs ushered in prime beer-drinking season downtown.

In this battle of Bud against the Brotherhood of Teamsters, it seems that Busch is still king. Partly because of the city's affinity for Budweiser, the Teamsters strike has been the least successful labor action in at least 30 years, said Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in labor law.

"Generally speaking, when you have a strike, the overwhelming bulk of people in town are supportive. They're not supportive of this one," Bernstein said. "It looks like the union is in big trouble."

The union does have its supporters. Hodak's Restaurant & Bar, where Deida's drank his Miller Lite, hasn't served Budweiser beer for nearly five months. The establishment is honoring the boycott called by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 600, whose members are on strike against Lohr Distributing Co.

Twenty-five drivers went on strike in May after labor negotiations with the company collapsed over salary and health care payments. They are asking supporters to boycott the distributor, which essentially means boycotting all Anheuser-Busch products in St. Louis. Lohr is the brewer's exclusive distributor inside city limits.

Bernstein said the strike has been undermined because beer deliverymen aren't high-profile workers that interact with the public. But drivers have taken center stage outside Busch Stadium during the playoffs. Teamsters often stand outside the main entrance with placards and signs, asking fans to refrain from drinking the Anheuser-Busch beers available inside.

A man drinking Bud Light approached the Teamsters before one game and asked why he should boycott the beer. When told of the strike, his response was immediate, though somewhat slurred.

"Tell you what--I'll drink more beer so maybe you'll make more money," he said.

Teamster Tony Giamanco said that wouldn't help at all. Fans drink about 8,500 gallons of beer during a typical Cardinals game, the deliverymen say. The Teamsters have little hope of stemming that flow.

"It's David and Goliath is what it is," Giamanco said. "If we get 1 percent of the crowd not to drink (Anheuser-Busch products), that's a huge victory for us."

Final victory seems distant. In fact, it's not clear that Lohr drivers even have their jobs anymore. The company told them this month they have been permanently replaced. The union says the move is a hardball negotiating tactic and that workers will be able to get their positions back through bargaining. A Lohr spokesman said the company would not comment as long as the labor dispute is ongoing.

Anheuser-Busch has largely tried to stay above the fray, saying Lohr is an independent contractor. The brewer filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board last week charging that the Teamsters' boycott is illegal because Anheuser-Busch is not directly involved in the dispute. The board is investigating the charges.

Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co. isn't shedding any tears over the boycott.

"If people in St. Louis have the opportunity to try Miller Lite, more of them ... will hopefully realize that Miller Lite does indeed taste better than Bud Light," said Miller spokesman Peter Marino.

While Anheuser-Busch has avoided the spotlight, St. Louis bar and restaurant owners don't have the luxury of staying neutral.

At Hodak's, the owners decided to boycott Lohr to please customers, said bartender Mike Zotos.

"So much of our clientele is union and blue collar," Zotos said. Only a few patrons have complained about losing Budweiser on the taps, he said. They can choose between Miller products or a number of microbrews.

The boycott hasn't held at spots like the Cat's Meow. Co-owner and former union member Kenneth Ortmann said the bar boycotted Anheuser-Busch products as long as possible.

"We lasted for three months and two days," Ortmann said. Customers often applauded the boycott, only to leave after one beer to visit a bar serving Budweiser. "I'm not going to lay people off."

Even Mayor Francis Slay has been forced to choose sides. The Teamsters say they asked Slay to boycott Budweiser during a city-sponsored concert in August. Slay agreed to serve Corona, which is brewed by a company Anheuser-Busch partially owns but is not distributed by Lohr.

After the decision was mentioned in the local press, the mayor received a phone call from August Busch III, chairman of the board of directors. Busch told the mayor that Anheuser-Busch wanted to sponsor the concert. The Corona plan was scrapped.

"You can't really have a sponsor and not serve their product," said Ed Rhode, Slay's spokesman. Besides, Rhode added, city residents prefer the beer.

"Just thinking about getting a Miller Lite--it's not in the question."