Mott’s Workers Strike Applesauce Plant

Workers at Mott’s upstate New York applesauce plant launched an unfair labor practice strike against the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) subsidiary Sunday after earlier rejecting a concessions-laden contract from the food and drink conglomerate, which, last year, made a $550 million profit. (Click here for an audio report on the strike from Workers Independent News.)

More than 300 workers—members of the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union/UFCW (RWDSU/UFCW) Local 220—were forced to strike says RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. They are the workers who

helped make Mott’s the highly profitable company they are, and they should not be treated like a bunch of rotten apples by overpaid executives….Whittling down wage and benefit standards, while exponentially increasing CEO compensation is rotten business, and frankly un-American.

DPS CEO Larry Young made $6.5 million last year in total compensation—double what he earned in 2007. Last week, several Mott’s workers traveled to the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Frisco, Texas. Timothy Budd, who has worked at the plant for 24 years, told Young and the board, “forcing these cuts on us when DPS made $555 million in profit last year is unacceptable.”

The workers’ contract at the Williamson, N.Y., plant expired April 16 and the company demanded a $1.50 per hour wage cut for all workers, a pension freeze for current employees and elimination of a pension for future employees, decreased employer contributions to the company’s 401(k) retirement plan and increased employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays.

For more information on the workers’ struggle at Mott’s, click here.

If you want to take action to help Mott’s workers, click here to go to American Rights at Work and sign a letter to CEO Young urging a fair contract for Mott’s workers.