Charleston-area Beverage Market workers remain on strike as tensions rise

Negotiations are stalling and tensions escalating as employees for The Beverage Market, in Charleston, West Virginia, are entering the fourth week of their strike.

The employees — nearly 50 drivers, warehouse workers and more who are all represented by Teamsters Local 175 — have been manning picket lines 24/7 since declaring the strike on May 12. 

Luke Farley, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 175, said Monday that after months of negotiations with the owners of The Beverage Market, the union now held little hope that a contract agreement that is satisfactory to all parties will be reached.

Negotiations restarted for the workers’ contracts on May 24.

“We’ve met multiple times. We’ve gotten nowhere. Our members have been cooperative, they’ve moved inch after inch, but (The Beverage Market) hasn’t conceded to anything. It’s the union’s opinion that the company isn’t taking this seriously,” Farley said. “I seriously doubt that (the owners of The Beverage Market) actually want to achieve a contract or an agreement in this case. I think they just want to break these employees.”

The Beverage Market is located near Sissonville and serves as the distributor for numerous beers — Miller-Coors, Corona, Modelo, Sam Adams, Truly, Twisted Tea, Fat Tire, Voodoo Ranger, Blue Moon, Sam Adams, Dos Equis, Heineken, Smirnoff, Guinness, Pabst and more — for almost 2,000 customers across West Virginia.

Representatives for The Beverage Market — which is owned by Theresa Hammonds-Johnson and Luther Martin Johnson, of Hazard, Kentucky — did not answer calls for this story, but sent a statement via email.

Per the statement, the owners said they “care deeply about our employees and the communities we serve.”

“We respect our employees’ right to organize and engage in collective bargaining. We remain committed to negotiating in good faith and finding a fair resolution that is responsible, sustainable and beneficial for everyone involved. Our focus remains on continuing operations and serving the businesses, families, and communities across West Virginia that rely on us every day,” the statement read. “We recognize the challenges this situation presents for everyone involved and are committed to moving forward thoughtfully and collaboratively. We remain hopeful that, through continued good-faith efforts on all sides, a positive resolution can be achieved.”

But, according to Farley, those sentiments aren’t being reflected on the picket line as tensions are continuing to rise and “good-faith” negotiations have fallen flat.

“

In 20 years I’ve been doing this, this is the worst case of corporate greed I’ve ever seen.

— Luke Farley, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 175

Farley said “intimidation tactics” against the striking workers by The Beverage Market have physically escalated. Last Thursday, he said, a security guard employed by the company tossed a picketing employee to the ground. The mother of another employee was also pushed to the ground, Farley said. Emergency responders were called.

The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office could not be reached to confirm whether an investigation was ongoing into the alleged incident. Farley said it was his understanding that both individuals plan to press charges against the security guard.

“The only purpose for security guards to be that close to the picket line is for intimidation and to try to incite violence,” Farley said. “I guess they got tired of our members not taking the bait and wanted to take matters into their own hands.”

This isn’t the first time employees at The Beverage Market renegotiated their contracts with its owners. In the past — as recently as three years ago — these were cooperative proceedings. But Farley said that the tensions underlying the current strike started at The Beverage Market sometime in early 2025. The attitudes from the owners toward the employees, Farley said, shifted and grew into discontent and aggression.

When the time came to renegotiate the workers’ contracts this year, that discontent translated into newly proposed employment terms, Farley said. The Beverage Market owners wanted to cut pay for some employees and increase health insurance premiums “drastically” — up 900%, per the Teamsters. The proposed contract would have also eliminated portions of workers’ retirement benefits as well as health supplements available through their plans. The Beverage Market, Farley said, only proposed “a nickel” increase in pay.

If that contract was finalized, Farley said some employees would be seeing up to a $5 per an hour pay cut due to the increased health insurance costs and the lack of a raise.

“These were worker concessions that we could never accept, that the employees could never agree to,” Farley said. “So we started negotiations. Those haven’t gone, well, anywhere really.”

Through back-and-forths, The Beverage Market conceded to increasing health insurance premiums by 880%. Farley said that was the only real offer made by the company, and it was not near enough to satisfy employees.

“In 20 years I’ve been doing this, this is the worst case of corporate greed I’ve ever seen,” Farley said.

And more frustrating, he said, is that the owners and representatives for the company have not provided any information as to why they proposed such steep concessions from the workers. Farley said that with more context, negotiations could be different.

“All the while when they’re asking for these concessions, they’re not claiming that they’re losing money, there’s no claim of poverty here,” Farley said. “Obviously, if a company is struggling to stay afloat, we’d be having much different conversations. But this is a company — to all of our knowledge — that’s profitable, and they can’t point to any legitimate reason as to why they want employees to go backwards, to take these cuts.”

For the workers, the ongoing strike has meant three weeks without a paycheck and only limited benefits. Between shifts manning the picket lines, workers have filled their time handing out fliers at events around Charleston to bring awareness to the strike and the conditions the workers are fighting against. They are urging people to abstain from drinking beer that is distributed by The Beverage Market and talking with local businesses who carry the brands about the ordeal.

Farley said many businesses have been receptive. They don’t want to cross a picket line and are OK going without a few shipments to stand by the employees. In many cases, the striking workers are the main contact for businesses that rely on The Beverage Market. 

“These are the people that are out in the market, these are the people that the customer knows, that the community knows. These are the people that do the work, that deliver the beer to the customer, stack the beer in the customer locations, deal with the complaints and the day-to-day problems that the customers have,” Farley said. “The way that they’re being treated is absolutely disgusting and businesses aren’t on board with that.”