Clare Rose Workers Authorize Strike
Over 100 workers at Clare Rose, a private beer distribution company, have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their union’s negotiation committee to call a strike. The Long Island company is headquartered in East Yaphank with an additional facility in Melville.
The current contract extension expires at midnight, Friday, April 21st. Months of negotiations have yielded little compromise, and both sides remain far apart as the deadline approaches. Clare Rose, one of the largest beverage distribution companies in the United States, is steadfast in its demands to slash worker pay by 30 percent and eliminate the workers’ defined benefit pension plan.
Many of the Local 812 members who deliver, sell and merchandise Clare Rose products, including Budweiser and Bud Lite, to area businesses, have held their jobs for decades.
Teamsters Local 812 President Ed Weber said, “Clare Rose is enormously profitable, and has been for generations. This company was built on hard work and mutual respect, but now they are trying to eliminate some of Long Island’s last solid middle-class jobs in order to increase profits. This is corporate greed, pure and simple. These workers deserve wages that allow then to support their families and a pension that will allow them to retire in dignity.”
Local 812 Secretary-Treasurer Joe Vitta has alerted union allies of a possible strike. Vitta said, “Our union is solidly behind the Clare Rose workers and so is the larger labor community. We are grateful for the support of our local Labor Councils and Teamster Joint Council. If it takes a Budweiser boycott to get through to this company than so be it. ”
Local 812 proudly represents more than 3,500 Teamster families working in the beverage industry. Our members produce, haul, deliver, merchandise and sell soda, water, beer and sports drinks throughout the New York Metropolitan area.