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Jan 13, 2007 11:16 pm US/Eastern
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Investor, Concessions Could Save Iron City Beer
by Paul Martino
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
Pittsburgh Brewing is several million dollars in debt and in bankruptcy.
But a new investor and more union concessions could be the ingredients to save the brewery.
John N. Milne, a Connecticut investor, told KDKA's Paul Martino that he hopes to soon own the brewery.
"After two weeks of hard work by both teams, it seems like we have a mutual agreement on that and an agreement that the union is prepared to recommend to its members," he said.
But more wage cuts and reduced benefits may be a hard sell to the company's 150 union employees.
However, Union Representative George Sharkey remains optimistic.
"Hopefully the other pieces to the puzzle will fall in place and they'll end up purchasing the company and we'll end up working there for many more years," he said.
The concessions are even harder to swallow when employees take into account that they'll all have to reapply for their jobs.
Both sides claim this is not an attempt to eliminate the union.
"We're really not going to have to reapply. All we're going to have to do is go out and fill out applications and we won't even miss a day of work if it goes through," Sharkey said. "It won't be reapplying in the sense you think of applying for a job."
Milne is coming with some baggage.
His former company, United Rentals, fired him in 2005 in wake of a Securities and Exchange Commission's probe of accounting practices.
Milne refused to answer questions in the investigation and he's being sued by shareholders.
He admits it's not cleared up yet.
"The review by the SEC is still an open matter and hasn't been resolved," Milne said.
Even so, Milne says he and his investors have $7 million on hand to help try to save Pittsburgh Brewing.
In the meantime, the union votes on its package of concessions next Sunday.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)