Striking Bigfoot workers to speak at WOW Hall March 29

Presenter: Still standing strong after more than six months on the Bigfoot picket line, union members will share their stories this Saturday, March 29, at the WOW Hall from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. KEPW’s Underground Echo has been checking in with the union since the strike began. Here’s Echo with Brayden and Rachel last month:

Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): This is Underground Echo, where we amplify the voices of those fighting for justice and fairness in our community. And I’m your host, Echo, and we’re revisiting a story that has captured the hearts and minds of many—one of resilience, unity, and the fight for workers’ rights.

[00:00:40] Brayden (Pinney) is back and he’s bringing his co-worker now, Rachel, and can you briefly share what initially led to the strike?

[00:00:48] Brayden (Union member striking at Bigfoot): It originally started out with Bigfoot delaying negotiations by over seven months. At the end of the negotiations, they wanted to remove our pension. Without the pension, there is no union. So, we went on strike due to that.

Shortly after we went on strike to fight for our pension, we learned that Bigfoot had hired a union-busting organization from out in Portland, the same union-busting organization that broke the union at Meletis. Organizations that want to get rid of their unions know that they can pay an organization to come down and break their union. (Yeah.)

[00:01:21] So it became not just a fight for us and our pensions, but a fight for our union and all the other unions down here.

[00:01:28] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): Yeah. So you will not be broken.

[00:01:31] Brayden: No. We’re out here in the long haul. We aren’t going back until we win this thing.

[00:01:38] And I’m very proud of it. Because, you know, there’s a lot of people that look at different labor movements or rallies or marches or, you know, wars, even like WWII, like, there’s a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, this is what I would do if I was alive in that time / if I was in that state or the city.”

And it’s like: I’m here now. So I know what I would be doing during this movement and I am doing it, and I’m very proud of that. And everyone on the line should be very proud of what they’re doing, because they’ve held out this long.

[00:02:09] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): How are you guys coping with this uncertainty? Has this affected other families as well?

[00:02:16] Rachel (Union member striking at Bigfoot): Yeah, it definitely has affected a lot of families, especially because there are some of us that got different schedules and now they have to figure out childcare around, you know, their schedule.

[00:02:28] Or, for a lot of folks, they have partners at home that really don’t understand why we’re still out there, why we’re still fighting. And it’s caused a lot of issues and conflicts between them, in their marriages or, you know, in their relationships. And it’s been like, you know, hard for folks to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing and why they’re still doing it, especially when they’ve got partners at home that are like, ‘Why are you still out there? Why don’t you just find another job?’

[00:02:55] We lost our insurance through the company on the first of the year and that caused a lot of conflict for folks that had their wives and husbands and children on their insurance. That was a pinch point for some folks that it was like, ‘I either have to cross the picket line and go back to work for these people to just support my family or I have to find a different job entirely.’

[00:03:19] Brayden: And a lot of people did end up crossing the picket line because they already have the insurance with the company. If they went and found another job they would have to go through the probation period, which is you know anywhere from 90 days plus—to be able to just start claiming insurance.

[00:03:33] Yeah, when you’re bringing in insurance for your wife and kids, I mean, I can’t blame them. And a lot of the people that did cross were heartbroken to cross, and they reached out to us and, you know, they were very sad that they had to, but we were understanding of why they had to do it.

[00:03:49] Rachel: I also applied for OHP this week and I was approved for that. So that is also an option for some of us. I’m not sure all of us will be approved for that but that is potentially an option too.

[00:04:01] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): And Bigfoot has reportedly brought in those temporary replacement workers. So what message do you think this sends to the striking employees?

[00:04:08] Rachel: They don’t value us at all. They clearly don’t realize how powerful even the personal relationships we have made with stores and bars, like owners, you know, they don’t realize how powerful those personal relationships are.

[00:04:25] Brayden: There would be no Bigfoot Beverages if it wasn’t for the people that they hired that have built such a good reputation in this community.

[00:04:33] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): And it shows we’re a city that prides itself on how we take care of each other. And this is a moment, Eugene, for you really to step up, listeners, and support your local community by listening to what they have to say and supporting the picket line.

[00:04:50] Brayden: The community is major in keeping morale up. I mean, I’ve definitely had some, you know, lower days on the line, low energy and someone comes out and they’re telling me their story about how they’ve been unionized for the majority of their life and how their parents were unionized and, you know, to keep up the good fight and they’re always there to support us. And they’re not lying. The community support has been overwhelming.

[00:05:14] If you would like to visit BoycottBigfoot.Now, DSA has been so kind to build us this absolutely lovely website that are we were constantly updating with new products that Bigfoot is getting, we are updating with businesses that are now supporting the boycott.

[00:05:30] Yeah, come and visit us on the picket line. If you have five minutes or five hours, come and stand with us. Just stand there, hold a sign, talk to the people on the line.

[00:05:40] We’ve had a lot of volunteers from DSA go out and support us. There’s been a lot of people that have been putting up posters in town allowing to spread the word of the boycott. It means a lot to us and also it means a lot to the businesses that are supporting us.

[00:05:56] We did a Bigfoot bar crawl (I heard about that) to go and do a bar crawl for all of the businesses that are supporting us and more people are joining that list.

[00:06:06] Rachel: We have other people that bring donations on a weekly basis. There is a really kind woman: The Cookie Woman. She brings cookies from Safeway every week. (The Cookie Woman.)  The Cookie Woman, the whole strike. We also have The Donut Man, who brings us donuts. Hey Neighbor Pizza has been awesome.

[00:06:24] Brayden: Yeah, so if you’re looking for a nice pizza go visit ‘Hey Neighbor.’ Yes.

[00:06:29] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): Where is Hey Neighbor?

[00:06:30] Rachel: There’s a couple of locations. There’s one on campus—

[00:06:34] Brayden: Yeah, by Prince Puckler’s and the, what is it?

[00:06:37] Rachel: The Friendly Street area. Another one that’s worth noting is Claim 52, they’re boycotting as well, and I hear they have really good burgers, so I would recommend Claim 52.

[00:06:49] Jackalope has been super supportive of us. Mandy’s restaurant (Yeah! Mandy’s 24/7.) You’ll see that they still have soda, but they’re ordering it through the website. So they’re going around. They’re ordering it through Pepsi, not through Bigfoot.

[00:07:04] And it’s the same thing with local breweries. You can go get them directly, at least like places like ColdFire, you can go through direct order them directly from the brewery and have them delivered from the brewery, instead of going through the middle man that is Bigfoot.

[00:07:17] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): Good, good. If Bigfoot management were listening to you right now, what would you say to them about how they’ve handled this situation? Without using explicit language on our show, please.

[00:07:30] Brayden: I mean, Andy, your father would be ashamed of what you’re doing to his company. He, from what I’ve heard about him, he seemed like an amazing guy. He truly cared about his workers and he understood that he wouldn’t have this company without the workers. And that’s why the union was there and that’s why the pension was there so that he could take care of the workers that took care of him. And what you’re doing right now is absolutely shameful and your father is turning over in his grave.

[00:07:58] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): Powerful words. Rachel:

[00:08:01] Rachel: Honestly, it’s just very disheartening and embarrassing. Like they had such a great reputation and for myself, I came from another beverage company. And Bigfoot was supposed to be like the promised land of the beverage world, You know, where you’re unionized, you have these protections from the union, the good pay, and like the working environment was also great. And it’s just really disappointing to see what it has become.

[00:08:26] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): What messages do you want our listeners to take away from your fight?  

[00:08:30] Brayden: Stay strong, stand in solidarity. This isn’t just our fight, this is everyone’s fight. And we need to win this thing if we’re going to protect the other unions in our community. So please, please support, spread that to your friends, family, coworkers, spread word of mouth. See the list of products to boycott. Visit that website, Boycottbigfoot.now.

[00:08:54] Rachel: We can’t let them win. We can’t let them win because it’s really our responsibility to make sure that this doesn’t become the norm.

[00:09:01] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): If Bigfoot wins, it sends a message to your job that they could just take away your job and your union whenever they like.

[00:09:09] Brayden: Yes (Yes), so please fight with us.

[00:09:11] Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): Because you’re fighting for all of us.

[00:09:15] Rachel: Yeah, that’s the bigger picture here. That’s why we’re doing everything that we’re doing. It’s exhausting, but it needs to be done.

[00:09:22] Presenter: Come to the WOW Hall, 291 W. 8th Ave., this Saturday, March 29, for a town hall with personal stories and first-hand accounts from striking Bigfoot workers.

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You can hear Underground Echo every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on KEPW 97.3, Eugene’s PeaceWorks Community Radio.