It's Kentucky Bourbon Heritage Month. So who's talking about local industry strikes?
We're making rural food and beverage labor issues a dedicated beat across Central and Eastern Kentucky. (P.S. We’re hiring!)
Local PR pushes and high-dollar social media campaigns love to tout to the bourbon industry as something Kentuckians should revere, and I guess I get it. I wrote about food and drink as a primary source of income for a really long time—including a book literally called Flask—so I understand the topic is breezy enough to gets clicks and sells ads without too much of a mental lift. After all, it’s fun, right?
But much like we’ve (hopefully, maybe) come to understand that the rush of horse racing and cancer-causing nature of tobacco are often built on a shaky foundation of exploitation and greed, Kentucky’s bourbon industry isn’t much different. It really is an industry, and over the past decade’s expansion, local coverage has largely failed to keep up in any meaningful way with issues faced by workers.
This is apparent through the lack of serious coverage beyond “breaking news” when it comes to strikes at separate distilleries in 2016, 2018 and now 2021, as well as largely ignoring systemic issues, like a years-long discrimination claim within the family of a major bourbon producer. The fact that—in the state where bourbon is made and marketed—we’re more willing to write about the snaking lines and sky-high prices for a rare bottle than the people who made that liquid gold happen is, well, just not right.
That’s why we’re hiring a food and drink labor writer to report out one longform story per month about issues related to working conditions in restaurants, bars, distilleries and beyond in Central and Eastern Kentucky. Rural communities are often left out of conversations about serious problems in the dining and beverage industry, and while we can’t cover every rural community (obviously), giving a home to these stories across our region can hopefully serve as a model. A longer job description will be sent tomorrow, but if you have questions in the meantime, feel free to email (thegoldenrodnews@gmail.com) or leave a comment.
Below, we’re taking our first toe-dip into this beat and also (surprise!) our first top-dip into audio: an interview with Jeff Royalty of Four Roses about their 2018 strike. Recorded on the day the strike ended at a Lawrenceburg coffee shop almost three years ago, I’m hoping these conversations reach public ears and eyes (much) faster through our new role here at Goldenrod.
(Also, goes without saying, but buy union-made bourbon, y’all!)
“After day nine [of negotiations] they said, ‘We’ll let you keep your sick time, but you have to give up your benefits for the next generation coming in.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that. I can’t go to sleep at night knowing I sold out the next generation.’ I went and talked to the membership—people who had worked here from 40 years down to five months—and we all felt the same.”
“We locked the distillery ourselves at 3:30 and by 3:35, I had a sign in my hand. It wasn’t about money. It was about our principles.”
“The Jim Beam guys’ problem in [2016] is that they were being worked to death without enough manpower. With this new right-to-work thing, in my opinion, a lot of these companies have just lost their mind. I’m a realistic guy, I understand that I work for them. But that doesn’t mean that they own me.”
“The public took care of us, too, bringing us food and water. The company didn’t take into consideration that they don’t live in this area, but this is our home.”
“What we have hear is the exception. There’s been many a good guy who’s gone out on strike for 100 days and come back to less than what they had before.”
“The guy who’s been here 40 years, he took it really personal. I had to talk him off of the ledge a couple of times. It was heartbreaking. He started in October 1978, so I think his feelings were hurt to see a place that’d been in his family for three generations getting run into the ground over a couple of dollars to the company.”