{"id":435496,"date":"2026-10-23T02:04:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T02:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/435496\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T02:04:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T02:04:33","slug":"breakthru-beverage-delivery-drivers-in-orlando-beat-union-busting-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/435496\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakthru Beverage delivery drivers in Orlando beat union-busting effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arturo Lewis is a truck driver in Orlando who\u2019s worked for Breakthru Beverage<\/a>, a multibillion-dollar alcohol wholesaler, for roughly three and a half years. He likes the social aspect of the job, and the way trucking allows him to stay connected with his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a social person,\u201d he admitted to Orlando Weekly in a phone call. But when he and fellow Breakthru Beverage drivers in Orlando and across Florida \u2014 in major metros such as Jacksonville and Tampa \u2014 organized a union with the Teamsters in 2024, Lewis wasn\u2019t expecting the aggressive union-busting campaign from his employer that followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very hectic,\u201d said Lewis, who\u2019d never been part of a union prior to joining the Teamsters as a Breakthru Beverage driver.<\/p>\n

As Orlando Weekly previously reported<\/a>, Breakthru Beverage paid a professional \u201cunion avoidance\u201d firm more than $375,000<\/a> to convince Breakthru drivers in Florida and in California not to join the Teamsters, according to federal disclosure reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, as Breakthru\u2019s management paid multiple union avoidance consultants a reported $3,750 a day<\/a> just to convince the drivers to vote \u201cno,\u201d\u00a0 the nearly 150 drivers in Florida voted<\/a> in favor of unionization in a 91-to-54 vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat money could have been well-suited to take care of us,\u201d Artie Hoffman, another driver for Breakthru, previously told Orlando Weekly. \u201cPut it towards the people who take care of your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the fight against the drivers\u2019 union didn\u2019t stop there. After the drivers in Orlando unionized, Breakthru allegedly refused to meaningfully negotiate with the workers over important terms of their union contract, including health benefits, wages and retirement benefits, leading the drivers to launch what turned into a four-month strike last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Breakthru Beverage delivery drivers Ricardo Ferrell, Shawn Rhames and Arturo Lewis (left to right) join a picket line outside their employer\u2019s headquarters in Orlando, FL. (June 4, 2025) Credit: photo by McKenna Schueler<\/p>\n

The strike \u2014 featuring allegedly unlawful terminations of drivers and low morale \u2014 ultimately ended with a union contract for Breakthru drivers that, according to the union, delivered \u201cmajor wage increases, improved paid leave and key protections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very ecstatic that we reached the deal,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cI was very ecstatic that the union held strong, that we held solidarity with the brothers, you know? Because we was up against people that were spending millions of dollars, man. Anti-union people that were spending millions of dollars on a campaign to try to get us not to be able to form and come together, trying to [decertify] us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, ahead of the strike\u2019s conclusion, a Breakthru driver filed a petition<\/a> with the National Labor Relations Board to decertify, or essentially dissolve the union.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The petition was filed with the help of\u00a0 the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union group that offers legal assistance to workers who want to get rid of their unions in an effort to undermine the organized labor movement nationwide.<\/p>\n

According to Lewis, Breakthru \u201cbrought people in\u201d to discourage their continued affiliation with the Teamsters by harping on about how expensive union dues were \u2014 a common talking point<\/a> of union busters \u2014\u00a0 and what the drivers could do with that money instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey even put signs along inside of the building, doing the math of what your dues cost a year and what you would be able to do with that, had you not [given] it to them,\u201d Lewis recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s common for employers that oppose unionization efforts to delay the process of negotiating a contract in the hopes that, with time, it will convince workers that it\u2019s the union\u2019s fault they haven\u2019t secured a strong contract, and not that of an uncooperative boss.<\/p>\n

We reached out to Breakthru Beverages for comment about the union-avoidance consultants, decertification petition or anything else regarding their drivers\u2019 affiliation with the Teamsters. We hope to hear back from them, and will add their comment to this story if we do.<\/p>\n

Convincing an employee to file a decertification petition is usually the last step<\/a> in the employer\u2019s process of trying to oust a union, according to a joint report from the Economic Policy Institute and union-buster watchdog group LaborLab.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the goal of the anti-union campaign, and employers either illegally encourage decertification petitions or tacitly support them,\u201d researchers Margaret Poydock of EPI, Teke Wiggin of LaborLab and Celine McNicholas (also EPI) note.<\/p>\n

The effort to decertify the union at Breakthru failed. Drivers in Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Meyers, Tampa, Pensacola and Midway, Florida, voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining unionized with the Teamsters earlier this year.<\/p>\n

It was only recently, however \u2014 thanks to a drawn-out process of reviewing objections filed by the employer \u2014 that the decertification case was officially closed, with workers retaining their union representation.<\/p>\n

Lewis, who helped urge his fellow drivers to keep their faith in the Teamsters, said he\u2019s looking forward to continuing the fight \u2014 as a Teamster \u2014 for better wages, better healthcare and a better work environment for Breakthru drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited about security, I\u2019m excited about stability,\u201d he said, adding that their new union contract gives them a solid foundation to build on.<\/p>\n

In Florida, only about 6 percent of workers even have union representation \u2014 compared to 11 percent union density nationwide \u2014 despite a near record-high level of support for unions, according to recent Gallup polling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

States in the U.S. South, including Florida, have for decades held and passed laws that have made it harder<\/a> for workers to join together to form unions and bargain collectively for fair wages, strong job benefits and a meaningful voice on the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe union cares about you as a person, not just you as an individual at your job,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cYou can go to the union away from your job \u2026 anything that you\u2019re going through, there is somebody, one of the brothers, that can help you. We have a Black caucus, we have a Hispanic caucus \u2014 because we have whatever it is that you\u2019re dealing with, the union has someone that can meet you there to help you in life. That\u2019s what I want people to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stay<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\u2018Don\u2019t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tDisney World\u2019s largest third-party restaurant operator, the Patina Group, has been accused by employees of wage theft, ignoring sexual harassment, and union-busting.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Catch\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t2025 documentary \u2018Partners\u2019 covers the rise of Starbucks Workers United and how baristas overcame aggressive union-busting tactics.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Orlando\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tMenzies Aviation, a contractor for major airlines that provides fueling services, decided to voluntarily recognize the workers\u2019 union in a show of good faith.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arturo Lewis is a truck driver in Orlando who\u2019s worked for Breakthru Beverage, a multibillion-dollar alcohol wholesaler, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1623,170529,170530,139,141,140,41638,4035,41639,71978],"class_list":["post-435496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-apple-news","tag-breakthru","tag-breakthru-beverage","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-teamsters","tag-union","tag-union-busting","tag-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}