A class-action lawsuit has been filed by 500 Coca-Cola Bottling Co. employees who allege the company violated federal law by canceling their employee health benefits.

The suit, involving five named defendants, alleges that Coke violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a federal law that sets minimum standards for health plans in private industry to protect individuals covered under these plans.

“In my almost twenty years of representing workers and unions in labor disputes, it’s hard to think of any past instance where I have seen an employer retaliate against its striking workers in a manner as egregious as what the Coca-Cola Bottling Company has done here,” said Dmitri Iglitzin in a statement. He is a lawyer at Schwerin Campbell Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt, an employment law firm based in Seattle.

The suit was filed in conjunction with about 500 Coke employees in Western Washington striking over charges of employee surveillance, intimidation and bad faith bargaining.

Contract negotiations between the union and Coke have been underway since April, but the company refused to bargain for 10 weeks, and then began an aggressive campaign of unfair labor practices, lawyers said. The employees’ contract expired on May 25.