At one of Healdsburg’s marquee wineries, a labor fight is quietly turning into one of Sonoma County’s biggest organizing drives in decades. Workers at Rodney Strong Vineyards are pushing for formal union recognition and a first contract, saying recent layoffs and rising benefits costs have stretched paychecks and stoked fears about job security. Production, bottling and warehouse staff say they want clear, enforceable rules on wages, schedules and health care instead of what they describe as shifting policies from management.
On May 29, fifty of the winery’s 68 production employees signed a petition asking Rodney Strong to accept a card-check neutrality agreement, which would let a union be certified if most workers sign authorization cards, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Company leaders turned down the card-check proposal and said any union drive should run through a National Labor Relations Board secret-ballot election.
The organizing effort moved squarely into public view on June 20, when more than 150 workers and supporters marched through the winery grounds behind a Sinaloan brass band, as reported by The Press Democrat. At the rally, warehouse lead Rafael Malfavon described having to choose between buying food or new shoes, while barrel worker Abraham Silva said he had seen injustices at the winery that he believes have gone unaddressed, the paper writes. The Teamsters local coordinating the drive says a solid majority of bottling, warehouse and production workers are backing union representation.
Rodney Strong’s communications director told reporters the company believes card-check agreements “deprive each employee of the right to make a choice free from pressure or influence,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Workers say management has hired Jesse Rojas, CEO of the Redd Group, as a labor-relations consultant, a move organizers see as part of an anti-union campaign. The winery, founded in 1959, runs a dozen estate vineyards and regularly welcomes visitors for tastings and tours. Public visiting details are listed on Rodney Strong’s website.
Gallo Plant Win Shows Momentum
The showdown in Healdsburg is not happening in a vacuum. On May 20, workers at Turner Road Vintners in Lodi, a Gallo facility, voted to join UFCW Local 186D. National Labor Relations Board filings show 37 votes for the union out of 43 eligible voters and a certification of representative issued later that month. The full tally and case documents appear in NLRB records. For winery production crews across California, that Lodi result is the clearest recent proof that organizing drives can succeed in the current labor climate.
NLRB Timeline Can Stretch
If Rodney Strong workers file a petition, the next move would be up to the NLRB, which would decide whether and when to schedule a secret-ballot election. That timeline is not always quick. An analysis from the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that while the agency reports a median of 39 days from petition to election, cases that require hearings last far longer, with an average of about 124 days before a vote. Those extra weeks give companies time to mount full-scale campaigns and legal challenges, which helps explain why some Rodney Strong workers are pressing for a voluntary neutrality and card-check deal instead.
What Workers Want And What Comes Next
Organizers at the winery say their goals are straightforward: a binding contract, predictable schedules and health coverage that does not eat up so much of their pay. They have brought in Teamsters Local 665 and North Bay Jobs with Justice to help with outreach and strategy. The group also points to an upcoming jump in health-insurance costs tomorrow, which they say adds urgency to their push for negotiations, as reported by The Press Democrat. If enough workers sign union cards or if a formal petition is filed with the NLRB, the agency will review the case and decide whether to move ahead with a representation election.
For Sonoma’s wine business, the outcome at Rodney Strong could be a bellwether. A successful union drive, or even a long and contentious NLRB fight, would mark a sharp break in a sector that has seen relatively little union activity in recent decades. Workers and organizers say they plan to keep making their case in public while they weigh when to file official paperwork. Company officials, for their part, continue to stress that they favor the federal election process and say they are following NLRB rules. Across Northern California, labor watchers are looking closely to see whether other mid-size producers will follow the trail now being blazed from Lodi to Healdsburg.
