And this is in a Right to Work [for less] state. Eric
In the heart of Nashville, the United Distillery Workers of Tennessee are
fighting to become the state’s first unionized distillery.
By Kim
Kelly<https://www.thenation.com/authors/kim-kelly/>Twitter<https://twitter.com/GrimKim>
YESTERDAY 2:24 PM
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[A man walks toward a corner formed by stacked whiskey
barrels.]<https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/tennessee-whiskey-ap-img.jpg>
A Diageo employee walks by barrels of whiskey stored in a warehouse at the
George Dickel distillery near Tullahoma, Tenn. (Erik Schelzig / AP Photo)
A few union-made whiskeys:
Ancient Age
Baker's
Basil Hayden's
Blanton’s
Buffalo Trace
Elijah Craig
Henry McKenna
Heaven Hill
Jim Beam
Knob Creek
Larceny
Old Crow
Old Grand-Dad
Old Overholt Rye
Taylor
Wild Turkey
Evan Williams
Windsor
Woodford Reserve
For those of us who appreciate the warm, smoky sting of a nice glass of the
good stuff, Tennessee whiskey enjoys the same outsize reputation as Kentucky
bourbon; there’s history in every sip, and even the not-so-good stuff ain’t
that bad. The two tipples are closely related, historically, geographically,
and chemically; a liquor connoisseur will tell you the main difference comes
down to an extra step (the Tennessee version is filtered through sugar maple
charcoal after it’s distilled, which imparts its characteristic smoothness).
But there’s another key factor that differentiates the two iconically American
spirits that—hopefully—will soon evaporate like an angel’s share.
In Kentucky, workers at many of the bourbon distilleries that manufacture
popular brands like Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, and Wild Turkey are
union members, and are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers
(UFCW)’s Distillery and Winery division. Until now, none of their Tennessee
counterparts could say the same. But in December, workers at Nelson’s Green
Brier Distillery in Nashville went public with their desire to organize a
union, taking the name United Distillery Workers of Tennessee. They face an
uphill battle by trying to unionize in a “right to work” state like Tennessee,
whose Republican governor, Bill Lee, is so virulently anti-union that he’s
personally led captive audience
meetings<https://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/04/tennessee-governor-leads-anti-union-captive-audience-meeting-vw>,
but they’re standing firm. The United Distillery Workers of Tennessee’s
distillery union drive is a first for their state, and, as one of the
worker-organizers told me last week, is an essential move to protect themselves
and their livelihoods.
It started with a
strike<https://www.ufcw.org/heaven-hill-workers-vote-to-end-six-week-long-kentucky-bourbon-strike-new-contract-preserves-healthcare-and-overtime-pay/>.
On September 11, 2021, following months of stalled negotiations over their
next five-year contract, the arrival of a federal mediator, and a September 9
meeting that saw UFCW Local 23D members vote 96 percent against the company’s
latest proposal, more than 400 unionized workers at the Heaven Hill distillery
in Bardstown, Ky., walked out. Heaven Hill is known for manufacturing some of
the biggest names in bourbon, including Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, and
Larceny (a personal favorite). Workers pointed out that the bourbon industry
had been enjoying record profits. In 2020, Heaven Hill made over $500 million
in profits, but during negotiations, the company hardly budged on issues like
overtime, wages, and health care premiums. Both labor and the local bar and
restaurant community rallied behind the strike, urging consumers to boycott
Heaven Hill products or refusing to stock them outright until an agreement was
reached. Six weeks
later<https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2021/10/23/heaven-hill-distillery-strike-update-union-votes-5-year-contract/6155674001/>,
on October 21, the strike came to an end after workers
ratified<https://www.ufcw.org/heaven-hill-workers-vote-to-end-six-week-long-kentucky-bourbon-strike-new-contract-preserves-healthcare-and-overtime-pay/>
a new contract. UFCW Local 23D President Matt Aubrey celebrated their contract
gains in a press
release<https://www.ufcw.org/heaven-hill-workers-vote-to-end-six-week-long-kentucky-bourbon-strike-new-contract-preserves-healthcare-and-overtime-pay/>,
saying, “Together, these hardworking Kentuckians preserved the affordable
healthcare, overtime pay, and fair scheduling that enables them to balance work
with supporting their families.”
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Earlier that summer, Heaven Hill had cut the ribbon on the $19 million
renovation<https://www.distillerytrail.com/blog/heaven-hill-celebrates-grand-opening-of-its-19-million-immersive-visitor-center-expansion-and-its-spectacular/>
of its visitors’ center, a project that took two years to complete and was
part of a larger $125 million expansion plan. Other distilleries took notice,
and even sent their own employees up there to scope it out. Workers from
Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, a historic craft operation in the heart of
Nashville that was snapped up by beverage giants Constellation Brands in
2019<https://fingers.substack.com/p/i-dont-think-its-going-to-work-out> and is
known for making Belle Meade bourbon as well as its own signature whiskey, took
a field trip to Bardstown shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and found
out that their own bosses were planning a big, costly expansion of their own.
“Our distillery announced that they were doing a $10 to $15 million build out
of our current facility,” Dylan Lancaster, a front-of-house worker at Green
Brier and organizer for the United Distillery Workers of Tennessee, told me.
“That got us thinking like, well, that’s interesting. We are all getting paid
well, well below the industry standard, based on what we know about the
distilleries in Kentucky, which are represented almost exclusively by UFCW. And
that doesn’t seem right.”
Many of his coworkers agreed, and they decided that unionizing was the answer.
On December 10, 2021, the United Distillery Workers of Tennessee went public,
initially hoping that the company would recognize the union voluntarily. They
had reason to believe that it might work out that way; Constellation Brands
already has several UFCW-represented shops within its portfolio, and the Green
Brier workers had an overwhelming majority, with 80 percent of the workplace
signing union cards. Instead, the company refused to recognize the union and
insisted on filing for an NLRB election. Their new corporate owner,
Constellation Brands, has ignored them; Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery
founders Andy and Charlie Nelson, who are now minority stakeholders in the
company, have been compelled to act as go-betweens—and they have not responded
favorably to the union drive. “We’ve expressed to them that it is not
personal,” Lancaster explained. “This is a struggle between the workers and
Constellation Brands, which is a multibillion-dollar corporation. If it was a
bad job that people didn’t like, they would just quit and move on, but we want
to improve on what they built here to make it better.”
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The major issues Lancaster related to me are mostly of the bread-and-butter
variety, with wages topping the list. As he notes, many of the major
distilleries in Kentucky are located in more rural areas or rooted in small
towns; but Green Brier is based in Nashville, where the costs of living are
climbing and come with the added risks that attend its reputation as a boozy,
late-night party town, rowdy “bachelorette
barges<https://www.nashvillepartybarge.com/>” and all. “Bottlers start at $15
an hour, and I think the distillers start a little bit higher than that,”
Lancaster estimated. But in terms of front of house associates, tour guides,
and hospitality people and the bottling line, nobody makes more than $20 an
hour.” That’ll get you about half a bottle of Belle Meade, one of the
distillery’s flagship brands (and, it must be said, a damn fine bourbon).
Discounts on liquor and other Constellation products are one of the perks of
working at the source, but Lancaster told me, “It just seems like those are
ways to obscure that we’re getting paid less than almost everyone else in the
industry.”
When the pandemic first came to Tennessee, the company sent its front-of-house
workers home, while insisting those in the bottling and distilling department
remain at their posts; after a few months, everyone was ordered back to work.
Lancaster explained how Constellation gave the front-of-house workers a small
pay bump to offset the loss of the tips that usually make up part of their
wages, but stopped as soon as they went back in. His position as a tour guide
means he spends all day interacting with the public in an alcohol-fueled
setting, and he sounds more than a little weary when he looks back at what he
and his coworkers dealt with last year. “As you can imagine, most people who
were traveling to places like Nashville during a global pandemic before
vaccines are not the most considerate folks in the world, meaning that they’re
not great tippers,” he said. “They were not very willing to adhere to Covid
protocols, masks, social distancing, any of that stuff. So we were having to
deal with a rather unruly public, and also getting paid less to do it than to
stay home and stay safe.”
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Workers are also hoping to gain a clearer grievance procedure to address
workplace issues, particularly those that have continued to arise as a result
of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, as well as stricter public health protocols
and plans to address what Lancaster characterizes as a lack of diversity and
gendered wage disparities. (“It’s definitely more fellas than women at the
distillery, at least in the hospitality side, and that has been an issue in
terms of the pay gap.”) With the planned distillery expansion looming, the
United Distillery Workers of Tennessee are also determined to ensure that
whatever comes next will be stronger, safer, and more equitable for them and
their next round of new coworkers. “We’ve got this big buildup coming. We’re
going to double or triple our numbers of workers, and we want these people
coming into this new expanded facility to have all the protections that they
deserve,” Lancaster explained. “And we want them to feel welcomed into this new
endeavor, and we want to create that and blaze that trail for folks, and just
make sure that people are able to pay their rent and have health care and be
able to live with dignity.”
Ballots for their union election went out on January 18, 2022, and they have
until February 8 to return them. Lancaster is confident that the union will
prevail at the February 9 vote count, but he told me a few days ago that he’s
been disappointed to see continued resistance from the company. “Since we
talked, Charlie Nelson held a captive audience meeting with all the staff
onsite at the time where he read off a script and peddled the age-old
union-busting hits, ‘The union will take away your benefits and potentially
lower your wages,’ and my personal favorite, ‘I’m not anti-union, but a union
here is inappropriate,’” he said. Lancaster also told me that the union
organizers had asked<https://twitter.com/UDWofTN/status/1482554373486092289>
their Twitter followers to send flowers to the office to mark the first day of
voting, and five bouquets soon showed up with notes of support and solidarity
attached. Later that week, the flowers disappeared, and they later discovered
that Nelson had donated the blooms to a local hospital—without saying a word to
the workers about it. (“Charlie’s assistant responded to one of our tweets
admitting that she personally drove them to the hospital, which is incredibly
sad and petty,” Lancaster told me). But the anti-labor vibes coming from the
corner office have not dampened the workers’ enthusiasm to win their union, or
to make state—and spirit—history.
“It’s very exciting to be on the forefront of something that is much bigger
than us,” Lancaster said. “We decided to refer to our union as the United
Distillery Workers of Tennessee, because once we do it, we’re hoping that
others will do it. We may be the first union distillery in the state of
Tennessee, but we will not be the last.”
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Kim
Kelly<https://www.thenation.com/authors/kim-kelly/>TWITTER<https://twitter.com/GrimKim>Kim
Kelly is a writer and labor activist based in Philadelphia. She is the author
of FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American
Labor<https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fight-Like-Hell/Kim-Kelly/9781982171056>.
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