113 Shore Point Distributing Company union workers are without a paycheck and healthcare as a lockout nears its 40th day.
FREEHOLD -- The medical bills for Mike Walsh, a 16-year warehouse employee at Shore Point Distributing Company in Freehold, pile on top of each other and come with hefty dollar amounts.
Walsh's wife Rene has stage 4 stomach cancer. The chemotherapy costs anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000, Walsh said. On top of that, there are costs for blood work and doctor's visits. In the last three months, Walsh estimates the medical bills have totaled at least $14,000.
Mike Walsh, 48, of Brick, is one of 113 Shore Point Distributing Company employees who was locked out on April 30. He was without healthcare for weeks as his wife suffers from stage four stomach cancer. (Photo courtesy of Mike Walsh)The cost wasn't an issue when Walsh was working at Shore Point and had health insurance that covered 100 percent of the bills, he said. But on April 30, that all changed when one of the largest beer distributors in New Jersey locked out 113 workers, leaving employees like Walsh without health insurance and a paycheck.
"I worked for this company so I wouldn't have to be in debt and now I'm in debt," Walsh said in a phone interview. "I worked my whole life so I wouldn't have to be in debt, and now I am. That's a new challenge."
Union officials with Teamsters Local 701 in North Brunswick, which represents the truck drivers and warehouse employees of Shore Point, said the distributor that serves beer to liquor stores and bars in eight counties in Central Jersey wants to implement a three-year wage freeze, eliminate pensions and give the company the ability to change its health insurance and co-pays at will.
The company declined to comment about the lockout or negotiations. Security at Shore Point's headquarters would not allow a reporter to enter the building. The company's chief financial officer, John Macrae, did not return multiple phone calls to his office line seeking an interview.
In a statement posted on its website, Shore Point said it "disagrees with much of what has been written and said about the current labor dispute." It said the company has "not stolen the employees' pension" but that the pension plan is "severely underfunded."
"The benefits they have accrued thus far cannot be taken away and will still be available to them, provided the union pension plan does not reduce their promised benefits any further in order to try to improve its funding status," the May 22 statement said. "In addition to making contributions to a new Company 401k plan, we will still be obligated to pay the failing union pension plan over a million dollars per year, for at least the next twenty years, to help try and secure the benefits for employees in the union pension plan."
Union officials say there's been "minimal progress" since the lockout, especially when it comes to health care.
Bob Vetrano, a member of Local 701 and a shop steward at Shore Point, said the workers are willing to get a plan through the union that would be cheaper than what the company is offering. But, he said, the issue then becomes what happens to the money owed the company.
"They feel it's theirs if we go out and find a cheaper plan," Vetrano said in an interview in front of the Shore Point facility on Route 33, where a Teamsters tractor-trailer sits adjacent to a tent stocked with food. "That's a big hang-up for us. If you are offering $9.10 towards health care, and we find a plan that's cheaper, I'll just use $8 as an example, that $1.10 should be ours to move. ... We need to know that's our money, but they're saying not necessarily."
A massive inflatable rat and police presence make the once inconspicuous office building and warehouse on an industrial strip of Route 33 in Freehold stand out. Members of the Local 701 stay at the intersection of Shore Point Drive and Route 33 around the clock.
They throw thumbs up and cheer as passing motorists honk their horns in support.
'They treat these guys better than us.'
Every morning, before the beer distributor's trucks leave the warehouse, dozens of cars line the streets where the trucks pull out to head to their routes.
The cars are filled with Shore Point workers. When one truck turns right, a car follows, picketing the stores where the drop-offs occur.
The truck drivers come from all over the country -- California, Florida, Arkansas and Georgia, to name a few states. According to an advertisement posted on Craigslist, licensed commercial drivers looking for "labor dispute work, strike work," can earn $2,000 a week for 12-hour work days. "All expenses paid, meal allowance, transportation (airfare) paid," the ad says.
"They treat these guys better than us," said one Shore Point worker, who did not wish to give his name to show solidarity with the union.
The "scabs," as the locked-out workers refer to them as, are incompetent and can't handle the loads the Shore Point drivers can, employees said. What used to be a one-man job, workers said, now takes three or four guys to handle.
John Watts, who manages Circus Wines on Newman Springs Road in Red Bank, says replacement workers take up to four hours to unload big orders (about 900 cases) whereas Shore Point drivers used to take 11/2 hours.
"It's the sales people that are doing the job," Watts said.
On Wednesday, six Shore Point drivers stood on the road outside Circus Wines with picket signs strapped around their necks, as a "scab" unloaded an order in the rear of the shop. He wore all black and had gold teeth, and declined to speak with a reporter.
As he pulled out of the parking lot in a Shore Point truck, the picketing workers stared at him as he laughed. A car approaching the store honked as the tractor-trailer pulled out in front of it on a busy stretch of roadway.
For the six Shore Point employees, Circus Wines was a stop on their usual route for years. Watts was a friend. But now he's an adversary, they said: another shop owner who won't support them.
Behind a counter inside Circus Wines, Watts said he was "all for them," before they unraveled a sign that says: "Circus Wines Beer & Spirits too High A Price For Beer."
"The second I saw that," Watts said, "I said, 'Why are you dragging me into it?'"
Watts said "business is business," and that if he chose not to sell the beer that comes from Shore Point -- Coors, Miller, Corona, Yuengling, Sam Adams -- he'd go out of business.
"That's a major part of my beer delivery," he said.
The Shore Point workers outside said other liquor stores and restaurants, like 10th Avenue Burrito in Belmar, continue to take Shore Point orders but discount beers that come from other distributors such as Budweiser.
The Shore Point lockout has seeped its way into the political landscape in New Jersey. Legislators from both political parties have visited rallies outside the Freehold office. The two candidates for governor, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Phil Murphy, who both live in Monmouth County, have stopped by to show their support.
Belmar Mayor Matthew Doherty banned Shore Point from providing liquor at one of the Jersey Shore's largest festivals, the New Jersey Seafood Festival. He called on other mayors to do the same for local events.
"No town should support a company intentionally locking out its workers," Doherty said.
On Sunday, the state's largest LGBTQ Pride parade, held in Asbury Park, uninvited Shore Point from the festival. And mayors in Point Pleasant, Brick and Berkeley have reportedly barred the beer distributor from attending festivals in their respective towns.
'I just want to go back to work.'
Both Shore Point workers and customers say the lockout has put a strain on long-standing relationships.
Ron Lake, the secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local Union 701, said the union and Shore Point were in negotiations for a new contract since Feb. 28. Vetrano, the shop steward, said workers continued doing their jobs for a month without a contract during the negotiations.
A 30-year employee who remembers the days when Shore Point was a small-time facility, Vetrano said when the company shrank the workforce several years ago and had "serious problems" keeping up with demand, the workers who are now out of work were the ones who stepped up to fill the gap.
"We worked seven days a week to make sure this distributor didn't suffer, and now this," Vetrano said. "This is how they repay us."
On the night of April 30, the night shift employees arrived at work to find a security tent blocking the entrance that turned away the workers. As the lockout nears its 40th day, workers are getting by collecting unemployment.
Walsh said he just got COBRA health insurance, but he still had to pay $4,000 for May and June.
"I just want to go back to work. I like my job," Walsh said. "Any special favors you would do earlier ... that's all done. That's never going to happen again. I'm just there to do my job, and do it well."
He continued: "I don't want to go back to any drama. I just want to do my work, get my check, make my wife healthy and go home."
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.