Days after announcing the formation of their union, the Brewing Union of Georgia (BUG) has filed two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Creature Comforts Brewing.
The union alleges the brewery has deployed unfair labor practices (ULP) that are “interfering with employees’ federally protected right to engage in union organizing” and “engaging in discriminatory conduct that is inherently destructive of those rights,” BUG wrote in a press release.
“Late this week Creature’s tactics moved into actions we believe to be illegal,” BUG wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “We have been asking for a seat at the table to work together, but the fact that we feel it necessary to file these ULPs makes it clear they haven’t been listening to us.”
Creature Comforts co-founders CEO Chris Herron and CPO Adam Beauchamp called the claims “false and baseless” in a statement to Brewbound (printed below in its entirety) and added that the filed charge “shows the union lacks a fundamental understanding of the National Labor Relations Act.”
“We are confident that after reviewing the evidence, the NLRB will conclude that these claims are invalid,” they wrote. “We are committed to continuing to communicate directly with our employees and to ensuring they feel supported and empowered to exercise their legal rights and engage in this process.”
BUG announced its founding on January 13 at a rally near the brewery in Athens, Georgia. A majority of Creature Comforts staff signed a petition, which was filed with the NLRB on January 17, a step toward an election to formalize the union. Management declined to recognize the union, BUG said.
Four business days later, brewery management “unlawfully threatened to terminate a brewery employee in relation for concerted activities,” BUG alleged in the release. The employee had been part of a monthslong evaluation, “without any apparent issue.”
“Management sent the employee an email threatening termination should the employee not improve their performance,” BUG wrote. “The union is deeply concerned that this sudden escalation is an unlawful attempt to interfere with this employee’s rights to engage in union activities, and to discourage union activity among others.”
The union filed a complaint with NLRB about what it perceived to be discriminatory conduct against the unnamed employee.
BUG’s second charge claims that Creature Comforts management “held a seemingly mandatory captive audience meeting with several taproom employees allegedly to prohibit them from voting in the union election and from participating in union activity” on Thursday, January 26.
“The union alleges that management prematurely claimed that these employees are supervisors under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) before the NLRB could properly determine their status,” BUG wrote in the release. “The company later repeated the same strategy in individual emails to multiple other employees. Supervisors are ineligible to vote in a union election.”
The potential outcomes of NLRB’s investigation could be “public apologies, expanded access to facilities for union organizers, automatic union recognition, back pay and compensatory damage (in the case of unlawful termination),” BUG wrote on Instagram.
Creature Comforts has retained labor law firm Littler Mendelson, which has worked with Starbucks and Amazon in those companies’ bouts with organizing workers.
A hearing before the NLRB has been scheduled for February 6, but Creature Comforts has petitioned the board to postpone it until February 8, because Littler Mendelson “has a previously scheduled arbitration hearing for a different client” on that day that “cannot be canceled or rescheduled.” An election will be scheduled following the hearing.
BUG has asked supporters to continue patronizing Creature Comforts’ taproom and stand with workers “by tipping them 100% or more,” sharing the union’s posts on social media, and asking the brewery “to stop union busting.”
As the movement continues toward an election, Herron and Beauchamp said the company encourages all eligible workers to cast a vote.
“All employees in the bargaining unit will have the opportunity to vote, and we sincerely hope they do,” they wrote. “We’ve always supported and always will support our entire collective staff and will continue to ensure that every single person gets a chance to be educated and for their individual voice to be heard in this process.”
A handful of the nation’s 9,500 craft breweries have successfully unionized. Workers at San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing approved a three-year contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in late 2019.
In September 2020, Minneapolis-based Fair State Brewing Cooperative voluntarily recognized its workers’ union. Fair State employees joined Unite Here Local 17, the Minneapolis chapter of a nationwide hospitality-focused union. The same autumn, workers’ efforts to unionize at another Minneapolis brewery, Surly Brewing Company, failed to pass by one vote.
Unlike workers at Anchor and Fair State, Creature Comforts’ workers have opted to unionize as a new, unaffiliated organization.
“BUG is not an outside organization,” the union wrote in an Instagram post. “It is literally the union we are creating, made up of only ourselves.”
Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York City’s Staten Island borough took a similar tack last spring when they won an election to form the Amazon Labor Union, an independent organization.
UPDATE (Wednesday, February 1, 10:30 a.m. ET):Creature Comforts disputes BUG’s claims in its complaint to the NLRB. In a statement, a spokesperson told Brewbound that the brewery employee who received a warning about possible termination had “documented performance issues.” The spokesperson added that the January 26 meeting “was a regularly scheduled supervisors meeting when leadership confirmed their status as supervisors,” which then “resumed as normal when supervisors discussed routine staffing and taproom matters.”
The statement from Creature Comforts co-founders Chris Herron and Adam Beauchamp in its entirety:
“We started Creature Comforts in 2014 with the idea that we wanted to build something better. Creature Comforts is an incredibly unique and special place that has made a real impact on the lives of its people and in the Athens community because so many people have made it that way. We are very proud of our company and our employees and what we have achieved together.
We are navigating this legal process, and we unequivocally and fully respect our employees exercising their rights. Creating space for everyone to talk to each other and get educated is exactly how we have always operated; it’s a core part of who we are as a company and aligns with our purpose of fostering human connection. All employees in the bargaining unit will have the opportunity to vote, and we sincerely hope they do. We’ve always supported and always will support our entire collective staff and will continue to ensure that every single person gets a chance to be educated and for their individual voice to be heard in this process.
Late this afternoon we received a copy of an unfair labor practice charge filed by the Brewers’ Union of Georgia. The charge contains false and baseless claims and shows that the Union lacks a fundamental understanding of the National Labor Relations Act. We are confident that after reviewing the evidence, the NLRB will conclude that these claims are invalid. We are committed to continuing to communicate directly with our employees and to ensuring they feel supported and empowered to exercise their legal rights and engage in this process.”
– Chris Herron (CEO and Co-Founder) and Adam Beauchamp (CPO and Co-Founder)
BUG’s Press Release:
Brewing Union of GA Files Unfair Labor Practices Against Creature Comforts
ATHENS, GEORGIA (January 27, 2023) – The Brewing Union of Georgia (BUG) filed two unfair labor practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Creature Comforts Brewing Company, for interfering with employees’ federally protected right to engage in union organizing, and for engaging in discriminatory conduct that is inherently destructive of those rights.
The first charge alleges that Creature management unlawfully interfered with employees’ right to freely engage in concerted activity for the purposes of collective bargaining and mutual aid or protection. On Thursday afternoon, January 26th, Creature management held a seemingly mandatory captive audience meeting with several taproom employees allegedly to prohibit them from voting in the union election and from participating in union activity. The union alleges that management prematurely claimed that these employees are supervisors under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) before the NLRB could properly determine their status. The company later repeated the same strategy in individual emails to multiple other employees. Supervisors are ineligible to vote in a union election.
The second charge alleges that Creature management unlawfully threatened to terminate a brewery employee in retaliation for concerted activities. For the past several months, the employee had been undergoing an evaluation process without any apparent issue. On Monday, January 23rd, only four business days after the union petitioned the NLRB for a secret ballot election, management sent the employee an email threatening termination should the employee not improve their performance. The union is deeply concerned that this sudden escalation is an unlawful attempt to interfere with this employee’s rights to engage in union activities, and to discourage union activity among others.
Based on these charges, the union believes the company deprived these employees of their Section 7 rights under the NLRA. Once a ULP is filed, the NLRB begins an investigative process. Should the NLRB find that the company has violated employees’ rights to freely and fairly engage in concerted activities, possible legal remedies include but are not limited to public admission of wrongdoing and apology, expanded access to facilities for union organizers, automatic union recognition, and reinstatement, back pay and compensatory damages in the case of unlawful termination.
The union considers these ULPs demonstrative of an increasingly pernicious union busting campaign against the union spearheaded by the company’s legal counsel Littler Mendelson. Immediately after BUG petitioned the NLRB for a secret ballot election and the company subsequently declined to voluntarily recognize the union, Creature Comforts management hired Littler Mendelson. Starbucks and Amazon management have also consulted Littler for their aggressive union busting drives.