Beverage Market strike enters eighth week with no agreement in sight

Eight weeks into a strike, union representatives said Tuesday that the owners of The Beverage Market in Charleston, West Virginia, and employees are not close to reaching an agreement to settle the labor dispute. 

In a news release, union leaders said that despite efforts to negotiate during five separate meetings, owners of the Charleston alcohol distributor are demanding more than 100 changes to the contract with employees.

“The major concessions are that they want people to pay a ridiculous amount more for health insurance,” Luke Farley, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 175 told West Virginia Watch Tuesday. He added that union members are willing to pay more for health insurance and have made proposals to do so. 

“The company still wants to be able to kick their spouse off. They want to be able to change the insurance policy at any time,” Farley said. “They still want to increase the premiums just well above what a normal increase would be. They want to eliminate portions of their retirement.” 

“They just want to jerk the rug out from under them,” he said. 

Nearly 50 drivers, warehouse workers and other employees of The Beverage Market have been picketing since the strike began May 12 following a month of failed contract negotiation meetings. 

Farley said the union has offered to bring in a federal mediator to help settle the disagreement, but the company has not responded to the offer.

The company, located near Sissonville, has more than 1,900 customers across the state, including chain convenience stores and grocers. It’s the distributor for numerous beers — Miller-Coors, Corona, Modelo, Sam Adams, Truly, Twisted Tea, Fat Tire, Voodoo Ranger, Blue Moon, Sam Adams, Dos Equis, Heineken, Smirnoff, Guinness, Pabst and more.

The business is owned by Theresa Hammonds-Johnson and Luther Martin Johnson, of Hazard, Kentucky.

The Beverage Market did not respond to a request for a comment on the status of negotiations on Tuesday. In a previous statement, the company said they “remain committed to negotiating in good faith and finding a fair resolution that is responsible, sustainable and beneficial for everyone involved.”

Farley said the conditions of this strike have been “extremely unusual” during his 20-year career in the union. 

“Most times both parties come in with a list of proposals, and then as time goes on through negotiations, you get down to what’s important to you, and you try to focus on those, and either party tries to address those,” Farley said. “And here, the union has done it, but the company still… it is obvious to anyone paying attention or involved in this process that the company has zero intentions of reaching an agreement.”

Farley said the 49 striking employees are “still very much standing strong.” 

“Not one of them has gone back to work, not one of them has crossed the picket line,” he said. 

He said the company management employees are making deliveries. The company has also hired outside workers to make deliveries and hired security to follow trucks and to “intimidate picketers and has opened a warehouse in Beckley, Farley said. 

“The company has spent so much money on the strike, if they would have spent it on a contract, we’d have a contract by now,” Farley said.