Woodford Reserve Offered Employees Perks Including Free Bourbon as Part of ‘Coercive and Unlawful’ Anti-Union Campaign, Judge Rules
Guide Dave Salyers describes the bourbon making process to a group touring the Woodford Reserve distillery on April 8, 2009, in Versailles, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke, file)
Law 360 reported on Tuesday that a judge for the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Woodford Reserve Distillery violated federal labor law by undermining its employees’ efforts to unionize.
A judge for the National Labor Relations Board ordered Woodford Reserve Distillery to initiate bargaining with a local Teamsters chapter after determining that the bourbon producer raised wages, announced changes to raise and vacation policies and gave away free bottles of bourbon in an effort to “undermine support for an organizing campaign” around the time employees were scheduled to vote on joining Teamsters.
Woodford Reserve employees ultimately voted not to join the union, with 45 workers voting against unionizing and just 14 employees voting in favor.
Woodford Reserve argued during a January trial it had “legitimate business reasons for implementing the raise, policy changes and bourbon distribution,” according to Law 360. Judge Andrew S. Gollin, however, ruled that the timing and circumstances around the raises, policy changes and bourbon gifting were “more than sufficient to infer unlawful motivation.”
As a result, Gollin ordered that Woodford Reserve must begin recognizing Teamsters Local 651 as its workers’ bargaining representative.
“This was a clear case of an employer interfering with the workers’ right to unionize and tainting the election,” Teamsters Local 651 Attorney Pamela Newport said, according to Law 360. “While the union would have preferred that Woodford Reserve employees could have organized freely in the first place, a bargaining order is the next best thing to remedy the company’s coercive and unlawful anti-union campaign.”
Law 360 reported that on Aug. 25, 2022, the local Teamsters union, Teamsters Local 651, informed Woodford Reserve Distillery that its employees were beginning an organization effort with voting to commence on Nov. 17, 2022.
A week after Woodford Reserve allegedly learned about the employees’ organization efforts, the distillery gave workers a $4-per-hour wage increase and made changes to its raise and vacation policies, according to Law 360.
Approximately a week before the election, Woodford gave workers bottles of bourbon, claiming its reasoning behind the gifts was that employees exceeded production goals, which were “yet-to-be-finalized.”
After the union lost the election, it filed complaints about unfair labor practices and claimed election interference from Woodford.
“As soon as respondent learned what was motivating the organizing campaign, upper management took immediate and unprecedented actions, clearly tailored at undermining support for the union,” the judge said, according to Law 360. “In light of the violations and their lasting effect on employees, I do not believe that traditional remedies will sufficiently deter their recurrence.”
Whiskey Raiders reached out to Woodford Reserve for comment and did not receive a prompt response.
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