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Teamsters on strike against Coca-Cola

ST. ALBANS, W.Va. — There are picket lines set up at Coca-Cola distribution sites in St. Albans, Bluefield, Logan, Parkersburg and Clarksburg. Members of the Teamsters Union are on strike.

Ken Hall

The dispute is connected to Teamsters Local 175, which represents Coca Cola workers in the Charleston and Logan areas. The workers have been without a contract for more than a week.

Local 175 President Ken Hall said the company “has absolutely refused to move, budge on anything. The employees feel like they have no choice. We’ll see how long this goes.”

Hall said the strike is over unsettled grievances.

“They’ve been trying to get meetings and the company kind of ignores them. So we’re on strike over that,” Hall said.

The picket lines have stretched to other Teamsters locals in West Virginia as a show of support, Hall said.

“We’re trying to get them to come to their senses here and be reasonable here. Again, this strike is not over the contract but it’s over grievances,” Hall said.

The dispute follows a proposal made by Coca-Cola suggested cutting off the employees from delivering Coke products and instead directly shipping them to warehouses like Sheetz, who have entered into their own agreement with Coke on how they will obtain their products and put them in their stores. Sheetz employees would bring the products from the warehouse to their stores.

The Teamsters employees rejected the company’s contract offer last month and were put off by the move made by Sheetz with the soft-drink company. They held some informational picketing at Sheetz last week.

In a statement released to MetroNews two weeks ago, Coca-Cola Consolidated said it had made a fair offer.

“We’ve provided the union a fair and competitive contract offer for their members. We don’t believe a work stoppage is in our teammates’ best interest. During this time, we remain focused on continuing to serve our customers,” the company said.





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