Employees at local whiskey maker Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery on Wednesday voted against forming a union with the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1995.
An official with the National Labor Relations Board tallied the votes in a virtual meeting. The final count was nine in favor of unionization and 21 against. Eligible employees were mailed ballots last month, and the deadline to return them was Tuesday. According to the NLRB official, the number of challenged ballots was not sufficient to change the results. Objections to the vote can still be filed.
One union backer, employee Dylan Lancaster, told the Scene upon launch of the organizing effort in December that around 80 percent of the eligible employees supported the union.
Organizers say the vote would have made Nelson’s Green Brier the first distillery in the state with union representation. Eligible workers included gift shop employees, bottlers, distillers and others who are paid hourly.
Brothers Andy and Charlie Nelson launched the company in 2012, tracing their roots back to a 19th-century Nashville distillery run by an ancestor. In 2019, beverage conglomerate Constellation Brands, which also owns Corona and Svedka, took majority ownership in the company.
The company hired attorneys from Jackson Lewis P.C. to represent them in the proceedings, while the employees were represented by a union official and a local attorney with Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison. According to one employee, one of the Nelson brothers held a captive audience meeting before the election in an effort to urge workers to vote no.
Nelson’s Green Brier brands include Belle Meade Bourbon.
