Teamsters vote can go forward at Atlanta-area Coca-Cola Enterprises facilities
A settlement between the Teamsters and Coca-Cola Enterprises clears the way for employees at several Atlanta-area facilities to vote on whether to be represented by the union.
The National Labor Relations Board approved the settlement between the union and the country's biggest bottler of Coca-Cola products.
The deal follows complaints of unfair labor practice filed by the Teamsters against CCE in June. Those complaints led to the cancellation of an organizing vote last month.
The settlement does not set a date for a new vote, but it requires CCE to rescind a discipline issued to a union activist and post a notice to employees stating the company will not interfere with their right to form a union. It also grants back pay to some hourly employees at CCE's Marietta bottling plant.
"We're pleased that the NLRB has intervened to help negotiate an agreement," Randy Brown, president of Teamsters Local 728, said in a statement.
Coca-Cola Enterprises said the settlement did not find it in violation of the law.
"We avoided the lengthy litigation process in an effort to allow our employees to participate in an NLRB-conducted secret ballot election at the earliest opportunity," Coca-Cola Enterprises said in a statement. The company said it "cooperated fully with the NLRB."
The Teamsters currently represent more than 14,000 people involved in the production and distribution of Coca-Cola in the United States. For more than a year, the union has been trying to organize about 340 workers at metro Atlanta facilities. Frustrations over the process clouded the annual shareholders meetings of both Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Enterprises earlier this year, with Teamsters complaining of roadblocks.
The complaints come as Coca-Cola works to buy the North American operations of CCE, a transaction expected to close late this year.
