Teamsters Accuse Rodney Strong Winery Of Intimidating Workers Trying To Unionize: Report

HEALDSBURG, CA — Workers seeking a union at Rodney Strong Vineyards have taken their fight to the federal authorities, filing three unfair labor practice charges, including a complaint alleging intimidation during the organizing campaign.

A consultant hired by Rodney Strong Vineyards used rumors of nearby Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to stoke fears of discipline or dismissal in order to intimidate workers organizing a union, Teamsters Local 665 said in two complaints.

The winery denied the accusations, calling the them categorically false. However, the union has filed three unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

They have also launched a campaign asking the public to abstain from joining the Rodney Strong wine club until the winery allows the workers to organize according to their own terms rather than the NLRB that they believe could be swayed by the administration of Donald Trump.

The union filed the complaints Sept. 3 and Sept. 23 accusing the winery and its consultant of violating workers’ rights through changes to employment terms, discipline, coercive rules, retaliation, and dismissal.

Management maintains that workers should decide union representation through a federally supervised secret-ballot election.

Organizers have launched pickets and a customer campaign while the NLRB evaluates the allegations, according to reports.

The confrontation follows management’s rejection of a neutrality agreement.

Workers sought a promise against intimidation and union recognition through card checks, which allows a neutral party to verify majority support through signed authorization cards.

On May 29, more than 60 workers and supporters delivered a petition bearing a majority of workers’ signatures, according to Teamsters Local 665. The winery rejected the agreement and retained labor relations consultants.

In August, Christopher O’Gorman, Rodney Strong’s senior director of marketing communications, said that a Card Check Neutrality Agreement "limits the winery's ability to share information with employees, reduces transparency, and, most importantly, replaces the protections of a secret-ballot election with a process that does not provide the same level of privacy for employees making this important decision."

O’Gorman could not be immediately reached for further comment.

Employees across the cellar, barrels, bottling, warehouse, maintenance, and laboratory departments seek better wages, improved healthcare, and job security. Terminations, lost bonuses, and additional work without raises helped spur the campaign, according to reports.

Dozens of workers and more than 150 supporters rallied June 20 to demand the agreement, according to the union.

Local 665 President Mike Yates described the campaign as the Sonoma County wine industry’s largest organizing effort in decades.

Other wine employers already have union contracts. The United Farm Workers represents employees at Balletto, Gallo of Sonoma, Charles Krug, and St. Supéry’s Dollarhide Estate Vineyard, according to reports. Another 42 workers at Gallo-owned Turner Road Vintners

Workers sought public support through a petition asking people to pledge to join Rodney Strong Vineyards’ wine club only if management agrees to a card check neutrality agreement.