photo credit: Aura Aguilar/North Bay Jobs with Justice
Reynoso Family Vineyards employees gather at Sugarloaf Wine Co. in
Santa Rosa on November 25th, in an attempt to confront ownership over back wages.

Some two dozen employees at an Alexander Valley winery have spoken out after months of bounced checks.

The workers say they're owed back pay, close to $34,000 altogether. That's according to Aura Auguilar, an organizer aiding the employees efforts.

"So this group of workers from the company Reynoso [Family Vineyards], they've been working there in Cloverdale," Aguilar said. "Some of them have been working like over 10 years, but they've all been working this year and most of them haven't been paid since May."

Aguilar said a core group of seven employees have led efforts to recoup the back pay, they said is owed for work done across the growing and harvest season.

"They're not able to pay their rent, they're not able to pay their bills, and they've tried to cash the checks and then those checks have bounced," Aguilar said. "So they have ended up having to pay for the fees that come with trying to cash a check with no funds."

In October, Reynoso Family Vineyards filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, with between $10 and $50 million in both assets and liabilities, according to bankruptcy filings.

According to reporting in the North Bay Business Journal, Joe Reynoso, the principal operator behind Reynoso Family Vineyards and Sugarloaf Wine Company, a Santa Rosa custom crush and tasting facility also implicated in the bankruptcy filing, leveraged money from both companies to support Reynoso's financial technology startup company.

The money shuffling appears to have come up short though, and now, winery employees say their paychecks are missing.

Aguilar said the workers came to North Bay Jobs with Justice for help in resolving the situation, directly confronting management at Sugarloaf Wine Co. late last month.

"The workers are used to hearing this, are used to him saying, 'Hey, I'm gonna pay you on Saturday.' He doesn't pay," Aguilar said. "So that's exactly what's happened. He said, 'I'm gonna pay you guys on Saturday.' He hasn't paid; and then he said he's paid on Wednesday. He still hasn't paid, and so the escalation is really just like filing these wage claims with the DA."

Reynoso did not respond to multiple requests for comment from KRCB, but in a written statement to the Press Democrat, he expressed concern over the missed payments; and cited a confluence of issues, including the lack of a payroll manager, post-pandemic cash flow, and the lack of timely payments on the sale of personal financial assets.