A vote to formalize the Brewing Union of Georgia (BUG) among employees at Athens, Georgia-based Creature Comforts Beer Co. has failed.
The results of the election, which took place on October 3, were 21 votes in favor and 32 against, Creature Comforts told Brewbound, noting that the company was “pleased, but not surprised” by the results.
“It speaks to the level of engagement and trust in the process that there was such a large voter turnout with 90% of eligible employees voting in the election,” the brewery said in a statement.
BUG is challenging the election’s results, according to Creature Comforts.
“We hoped the union would respect our employees’ clear wishes not to be represented by the Brewing Union of Georgia,” the brewery said. “Unfortunately, the union continues to prolong this process by challenging the election results.”
BUG has been fighting to formalize the union since the beginning of the year. It filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on January 17, four days after announcing the formation of the BUG as an independent union for all Georgia breweries.
On January 27, BUG filed two complaints with the NLRB against Creature Comforts, alleging unfair labor practices (ULP) and failure to recognize the union. Brewery leadership denied the allegations. Two more ULP complaints were filed in April, after two workers were suspended and allegedly ordered not to speak to any coworkers, pending an investigation, according to union leadership.
BUG waited more than seven months to hold its election. The union first had to participate in a two-day pre-election hearing in February in front of the NLRB. After seven months, the NLRB voted in favor of BUG in August, when NLRB regional director Lisa Henderson ordered the union and Creature Comforts to submit proposed election dates by September 7.
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. A second contract was ratified, but Sapporo, the Japanese brewing giant that acquired Anchor in 2017, announced plans to cease Anchor’s operations and liquidate its business in July.
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 unionizing attempts at the Minnesota breweries, BUG was a new organization, unaffiliated with any other labor groups. Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York City’s Staten Island borough took a similar tack in 2022 when they won an election to form the Amazon Labor Union, an independent organization.
Creature Comforts is the 37th largest craft brewery in the country by volume, according to the Brewers Association (BA). In 2022, it was one of a few top 50 brewers to record double-digit volume growth, posting a +10% increase in output, to 70,030 barrels of beer, according to the May/June issue of the BA’s New Brewer.
The brewery has nearly doubled its output since 2018, when it produced 36,141 barrels of beer. This rapid expansion left employees feeling that Creature Comforts “didn’t have the proper infrastructure in place to support,” according to the Flagpole’s reporting from BUG’s kickoff.
A particular drain on upper management’s attention was the brewery’s new outpost in Los Angeles, set to host its grand opening on October 28. In January, workers told the Flagpole there was “a chasm growing between upper management and everybody who’s supposed to be running the facility.”
Update Tuesday October 24, 12:10 p.m. ET
BUG has shared the following statement with Brewbound:
“The Brewing Union of Georgia respects workers and the election process and that is why it has filed objections alleging that CCBC’s violations of the National Labor Relations Act during the election campaign tainted the process and prevented us from having a free and fair election. Creature leadership knows this, of course, but has to posture as being morally superior at any possible chance.
“The company did not respect the voice of workers when over 70% of the proposed unit signed cards specifically asking to be represented by the union. Creature did not respect workers when we submitted a unit composition that included workers throughout the company that share common values, responsibilities, spaces, and needs. Instead the company started this process by forcing the union to an unnecessary pre-election hearing in order to delay the election and by accusing workers of having no understanding of unions or the unionization process. The National Labor Relations Board ruled otherwise in total agreement with the union’s proposed makeup, but unfortunately this process took the underfunded and understaffed labor board far longer than normal in a time when workers all over are thankfully learning to stand up for themselves and each other.
“BUG has raised its objections to the election process due to the aggression towards and termination of pro-union workers that were willing to be seen and heard. Through these hostile actions and myriad more, Creature cultured an atmosphere of discomfort and fear while actively spreading misinformation about both our union and unions as a whole.”