SISSONVILLE, W.Va. — A group of striking workers at The Beverage Market held a community event Sunday to raise awareness about their ongoing dispute with the company.
49 Teamsters Local 175 union members are on the picket line against the Beverage Market. The workers began their strike May 12, ten days after unanimously authorizing a strike due to concerns over concessionary proposals from the Beverage Market.
Teamsters Local 175 hosted the community support event in the Sissonville High School parking lot. Slush and taco trucks served food to striking workers, their families, and community members who stopped by. The event also included a bounce house for kids and a DJ.
The Beverage Market’s warehouse is located along Call Road in Sissonville. Workers held up signs in front of the warehouse, in addition to the high school event.
Picketing employee and Local 175 member Ian Moore said it was very important to give back to the community.
“Because they’ve supported us for almost a month now, and they’ve been great,” Moore said. “They’ve donated food, water, anything we needed, firewood, everything that we needed out there, they’ve dropped off day and night, 24/7.”
Teamsters Local 175 Secretary-Treasurer Luke Farley said the union has met with The Beverage Market several times for negotiations, with “no real progress” made. Farley said company ownership hasn’t even committed to how long the contract should be, whether it’s one, two or three years.
“They still want employees to go backwards and pay certain groups of employees,” Farley said. “They want to increase health insurance premiums. They did decrease from 900% to 880% (from the first negotiation to the second), but it’s just ridiculous. (The Beverage Market owners) Theresa and Martin Johnson, I don’t think, have any intention on reaching an agreement. They just want to break the union and break these guys’ spirit.”
Moore directed blame at The Beverage Market ownership as well.
“She (Johnson) is trying to cut our retirement,” Moore said. “She’s trying to raise insurance (by) 900%. She’s trying to eliminate jobs, and we’d all be taking a pay cut with what she’s proposing.”
Moore accused company owners of wanting to cut routes. He said Sissonville community relies on jobs like this.
Teamsters Local 175 President Steve Day said awareness is key, to let people know about these issues.
“We’re hoping to get the community out to support us,” Day said. “We’re hoping that the more awareness we raise, the more that people see what kind of corporate greed this is and how she (Johnson) is treating her employees.”
Several striking employees told MetroNews that they would love to get back to work, but the concessionary proposals are too exorbitant. The employees said with the increased health insurance premiums, they would be hard pressed to break even with their expenses.
The Beverage Market distributes to 31 counties and 1,900 customers in West Virginia.
Day reported some businesses are refusing to accept The Beverage Market deliveries during the strike.
“We’ve had some real good support from some of these mom-and-pop bars and convenience stores,” Day said. “They’re refusing to carry (The Beverage Market) beer while the ‘scabs’ (non-union drivers) are delivering. They want their own guys delivering the beer, and they’ve been real good to support us. I hope that makes her understand that these people are behind us.”
Strikers and Teamsters Local 175 leadership alike pointed to relatively seamless negotiations with The Beverage Market owners three years ago. Farley said there isn’t justification to support the concessionary proposals from The Beverage Market.
Moore called the proposals “pure greed,” noting that The Beverage Market has not claimed that it’s in financial trouble. He said the company ownership may be trying to smoke out the union workers.
Teamsters member and Beverage Market employee Charles Parsons said he’s worked for the company for nearly 39 years. He graduated from Sissonville High School in 1986 and said it was wonderful to see the community rally around the strikers during Sunday’s event.
It’s a waiting game for now, the strikers said. A popular beer-sales holiday has already come and gone with Memorial Day, and the strikers said they didn’t expect a resolution by the 4th of July — another huge event for the company’s finances.
Several strikers said they’ve been in contact with Miller-Coors to show them empty coolers, saying they hoped the company would step in.
Moore said he’s disappointed with how Theresa Johnson has handled the situation.
“She comes in and out of the warehouse and waves and laughs at us, and she thinks this is all game to her,” Moore said. “This is our livelihood. This is everything that we’ve worked on for 30 years. We just can’t all give it up.”
Farley said the next steps are up to The Beverage Market. The union is “perfectly willing” to continue striking until they reach an agreement, Farley added. He said he believes The Beverage Market ownership is trying to get the strikers to “break.”
“I hope that the company comes to his senses and just tries to negotiate a fair deal,” Farley said. “This is not as if we’re on strike asking for some crazy, exorbitant raises. We are fighting to keep what we have. This company wants them to go backwards in just about every single aspect of their job: working conditions, health insurance, money. It is flat-out ridiculous.”