Lambeau Field beer vendors to vote on unionizing Sunday ahead of Packers-Chiefs game

GREEN BAY - Service workers at Lambeau Field will vote Sunday on whether to unionize.

The election, which will be held by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), comes after the workers waited two months for the company to either recognize their union or force a vote.

Seventy-five hired beer vendors staff the concourses at Lambeau and are employed by Delaware North, the stadium's food and beverage partner since 2012. If they win union representation, they would join the Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality Workers Union (MASH), which also represents service workers at Fiserv Forum and the Pabst Theater.

The election will be held Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field, just hours before the Packers play the Kansas City Chiefs in Green Bay.

MASH president Peter Rickman said the votes would be taken inside the headquarters at Lambeau Field, which he likened to conducting a presidential election inside Democratic or Republican Party headquarters.

"It takes away an equal paying field for employees," he said, who have "made their choice already" to authorize MASH to represent them through their signatures.

NLRB-run vote for Lambeau workers comes after weeks of waiting, dispute over representation

A majority of the 75 Lambeau workers requested union representation in late September, with over 70% signing union authorization cards. They had also sent memos to Delaware North Sept. 22 and Oct. 2.

According to NLRB records, Delaware North claimed Oct. 16 the company had an accretion agreement with another union, Workers United. That means in order to win representation, the Lambeau workers would have to be added to an existing bargaining unit with Workers United, rather than forming their own union with MASH.

However, in another letter sent Oct. 18 to the NLRB, Workers United denied that was the case, saying they "disclaim any and all interest in representing any of the Company’s employees at Lambeau Field."

On Nov. 7, the NLRB filed a notice of election set for Dec. 3. Delaware North employees will vote on that day whether or not they want to unionize as a part of MASH. If over half of the workers vote yes on a secret ballot, they will establish their union.

While Rickman said he was "pretty confident the workers would show up" and authorize the union.

He said MASH doesn't charge initiation fees and that the vendors would be able to set their own dues once they established their union. However, he said, the fact this "verifiably false" information is going around "doesn't speak well" to how the company has chosen to follow the process.

The Packers organization "respectfully declined" to comment on this story. Delaware North have not returned the Press-Gazette's request for comment.

Rebecca Loroff is a breaking and trending news reporter for northeastern Wisconsin. Contact her with story tips and feedback at rloroff@gannett.com.