Teamsters up against Bigfoot Beverages with Unfair Labor Practice Strike
EUGENE, Ore. — Hundreds of Teamster Local 206 and 324 members take on vending giant Bigfoot Beverages in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike Thursday, September 19.
Outside of Bigfoot Beverages Corporate Headquarters in Eugene, Teamsters members held up picket signs determined to hold the line until Bigfoot ensures their pension is protected.
Bigfoot, which services all Pepsi products south of Corvallis including locations like the University of Oregon, Seven Feathers Casino, The Mill Casino, and Safeway, opted to offer a 401K in recent negotiations with Teamsters.
Teamsters say unlike a 401k, a pension equals guaranteed income once they retire.
“The company is demanding, and they will not get off their position this far to get out of the Western Conference Teamsters pension plan. We are a fully funded pension plan $60 billion dollars covering 400,000 Teamsters in the western region. It’s the hallmark of being a Teamster,” said Mark Davison, Teamster Joint Council 37 president.
The local chapters on strike include 240 members at four facilities in Eugene, Roseburg, Coos Bay, and Newport.
Anne Marie Levis, representing Bigfoot, tells us the company believes they made a generous offer to the Teamsters including pay raises, chapter-wide bonuses, and the 401K, but the Teamsters wouldn’t allow its members to vote opting for the strike.
Still, she says they’ve been preparing for a strike through reinforced staffing if an agreement wasn’t reached.
Meanwhile, Davison says they’re confident it takes more than a day to train new staff to fill in for the work they do.
“We will not vote an offer under any circumstances that doesn’t have the pension. A 401k will never ever compare to a funded pension,” said Davison. “They know we can’t accept that, so what they’re doing is they want to push us to the streets so that they can have a strike and try to break the union, and they’re hiding behind a phony proposal.”
Geoff Stewart, secretary treasurer of the local union, says they’re already seeing an impact with truck deliveries turned away by Bigfoot throughout the day.
Stewart says no deliveries have been made to customers so far since the strike began.
Davison tells us the Teamsters will meet with Gov. Kotek on Friday, September 20, at 11:30 to further discuss union frustrations.