http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2005/02/11/local/iq_3372935.txt By Dustin Block RACINE - Isac Aguero made it a Bud Light on Saturday night. His employer thought it should have been Miller Time. The 24-year-old from Racine said he was fired Monday, the same day a picture appeared in The Journal Times showing him holding a bottle of Bud Light. The picture was taken Saturday night, while Aguero was out in Downtown Racine during Mardi Crawl, and appeared as part of the JT's weekly "On the Town" feature depicting area nightlife. The problem: Aguero was a forklift operator for CJW Inc., the area's supplier of Miller Brewing Co. products. He said he believes he was fired unfairly. "It was a Saturday and I wasn't at work," he said. "They can't tell me what beverages I can drink." An employee at CJW who refused to give her name confirmed Wednesday that Aguero was fired, but said she could not comment about the circumstances of his dismissal. Aguero said he learned there was a problem with the photo shortly after he showed up to work on Monday. Co-workers told him he was in trouble for the picture. He was then called into the general manager's office and was told he was fired. Aguero said he was not given a reason for the dismissal, and claimed he never had problems with his bosses at work. He had worked at CJW for about 4 years before he was fired - and had drank Bud Light even longer than that. "Bud Light's my beer of choice, I always drink that," he said. "Just because I work there, do I have to change what I drink?" Aguero added that he was never told he couldn't drink Bud Light, and there was no reference in the employee handbook to avoiding certain drinks. He had at least one supporter in the beer distribution business. "We hate to see anybody get let go who's enjoying a nice cold Bud Light on his own time," said Dave Hock, vice president of Beechwood Distributors, the supplier of Anheuser-Busch products for southeastern Wisconsin. "We hate to see that come from any competitor, be it CJW or anybody. "We don't think it's fair to the individual to be fired based on what he was drinking."
A few years ago I would have been dubious about this story, but now...not so sure. Considering a woman got fired from her job for having a John Kerry sticker on her car and refusing to remove it, nothing surprises me anymore. Land of the free...as long as you do what you're told.
One of my former managers used to work at Budweiser. He said they drank nothing but Bud. Even in favor of water too, lol. I can see someone getting in trouble for drinking the competition's beer at a company function. But a random shot in a newspaper seems extreme.
Ridiculous (assuming there isn't any more to the story). It's not like he had an ad contract with them.
Well, if Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ever caught drinking any beer other than a Budweiser product, he'd lose his sponsorship with them.... But that's in his contract. And it's not like he wouldn't find another sponsor the next day anyway....
This is nothing new. It is standard protocol. My mother in law worked for Miller in the '70s/'80s. She was not allowed to drink Bud in public. One of my best friends works for a liquor/wine supplier here in Houston. He has certain rules he has to follow too. They know the rules.
I wear lots of college and university T-shirts, including some for schools other than my own. I even have the nerve to wear them to work. I should be fired. Standard protocol or not, it just isn't right. It is NONE of these people's business what their employees do when they're not at work.
I sincerely hope so Rocket River the ability of businesses/employers to invade and control our lives needs to be limited [considering the getting fired for smoking cigarrettes thing]
Being in the bar business i have see how serious they are about this. All the reps that work for the company can't even be seen near a competitors brand. They talk about the other beer company as if it was the worst thing on the planet. They have to be that way cause they work with the company and the battle between miller and bud is a big one so they don't take it lightly at all. Liquor companies could really care less what you drink if you work for another comapny but when it comes to beer and people can see the label on your beer and know what yuor drinking it makes a big deal.
