Workers at One of the Country’s Biggest Bourbon Producers Have Been on Strike for a Month
Around 420 workers at the Kentucky-based Heaven Hill Distillery have been on strike for a month. They say the company is pushing to radically change scheduling and remove a cap on health insurance premiums.
Roughly 420 workers at Heaven Hill Distillery have now been on strike for a month at the company’s bottling and warehouse operation in Bardstown, Kentucky. (Shannon Tompkins / Flickr)
Roughly 420 workers at Heaven Hill Distillery — a major bourbon producer whose brands include Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna, and Old Fitzgerald — have now been on strike for a month at the company’s bottling and warehouse operation in Bardstown, Kentucky.
At issue is Heaven Hill’s push for concessions in a new five-year contract. On September 9, workers rejected the proposed contract, with 96 percent of ballots cast opposing the offer. Shortly after their contract expired on September 11, workers walked off the job.
The workers are members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 23D. In a statement on the strike, the UFCW said the company’s proposed contract “removes a cap on health insurance premium increases that reduce take-home pay, cuts overtime, and drastically changes work schedules which makes it harder for employees to support and care for their families.” The UFCW also represents other bourbon-industry workers in Kentucky, including those at Jim Beam.
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