Local Stone Brewing employees look to unionize

Stone’s Fulton facility has been operational since 2016. (Mike Platania photo)

Two years after their employer was acquired by a multinational conglomerate, the local workers of Stone Brewing Co. are looking to unionize. 

Earlier this week employees at the California-based brewery’s Richmond production facility launched a union drive. They’re working with Local 322 of the Teamsters, which filed a petition for the union on Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board. 

The unionization effort comes two years after Stone was acquired by Japanese brewing giant Sapporo Holdings Ltd. in a $168 million deal. Stone, now technically called Sapporo-Stone Brewing, operates a 200,000-square-foot production facility in the city’s Fulton neighborhood. The plant has been gradually upgraded and expanded since opening in 2016. 

The City of Richmond lured Stone here in 2014 with over $25 million in incentives to make Richmond the East Coast headquarters for the then-San Diego-based brewer. The company now has 140 workers across the Fulton facility and a Sandston warehouse Sapporo-Stone leased early last year. The union effort doesn’t include the workers at the Sandston warehouse. 

Now that the petition has been filed, Stone employees are set to vote on the union at an NLRB-supervised election that will likely take place at the end of September. 

Dwayne Johnson, director of organizing for the Teamsters Local 322, is working with the Stone employees on the effort and said that while he can’t disclose the exact number employees who have signed union cards, it amounts to more than 65 percent of the Richmond brewery’s workforce. 

“It’s kind of an organizing rule: 65% is the threshold. You’re only required to have 30% by the NLRB,” Johnson said. “We want 70, 80% or better. That way it sends a message to the company that (the workers) are a force to be reckoned with, it’s not a divided house, they mean business and you better take it seriously. Because at the end of the day, I don’t want a mediocre contract. I want a good, solid contract, and I want the company to take it seriously.”

Stone CEO Zach Keeling said in an emailed statement that the company “respect(s) the right of our team members to choose or not to choose whether they want to be represented by a union.”

“We agree with our team members’ desire for the best possible workplace and we believe this is best accomplished without a union. Taking care of our team is our number one priority,” Keeling’s statement concluded.  

Sapporo’s beers started getting brewed locally last year. (BizSense file photo)

According to the NLRB petition the Teamsters filed, the union drive is open to Stone employees working in the brewing, maintenance, hospitality, packing, quality assurance and warehouse departments. Johnson said he delivered a letter demanding recognition of the union to Stone leadership on Aug. 26, the same day the petition was filed with the NLRB.

If the union vote passes, Johnson said they’ll begin collecting proposals from workers on what they’d like to see in a contract before heading to the negotiation table with Stone. He said that Stone’s California employees are not unionized, but that Sapporo employees in Japan are, and that the Japanese union already has sent the Richmond workers a letter of support. 

Johnson said kicking off the union drive marked a day of joy, albeit one that’s both fun and nerve racking for workers. 

“I think generally, most workers want a union and they’re just scared. It is a scary thing to go up against your bosses, especially with the economy we have,” Johnson said. “Money’s tight for a lot of folks. But they’re asking for more money because they need more money. The cost of living in Richmond has gone through the roof.”

Stone’s local union effort was first reported by booze industry trade publication Vinepair.

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