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Striking Jim Beam Workers at Two Kentucky Distilleries Accept Contract Offer, Ending a Walkout

Jim Beam

Striking Jim Beam workers at two Kentucky distilleries have accepted a contract offer, ending a walkout that lasted nearly a week.

United Food and Commercial Workers union official Tommy Ballard says workers approved the proposal on a 204-19 vote Friday and will return to work Monday. The strike began last Saturday when Beam workers at two distilleries turned down a prior offer.

The workers' main complaint with the world's leading bourbon producer was not money but time. The union wanted more full-time workers hired, rather than a greater reliance on temporary workers.

Ballard says the company's newest offer includes a commitment to hire more full-time staff.

With the strike ended, longtime Beam employee Bill Ball says, "Now we can get back to being a family."

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