No Bad Apples
Members of RWDSU-UFCW Local 220 in Williamson, NY, have been trying to negotiate a contract with Mott’s, a subsidiary of Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. The company is looking to slash wages by as much as $1.50 an hour for each and every employee, and is trying to take away the workers’ pension plan. There is no economic necessity for what the company is seeking to do. It is a profitable, growing company.
DPS’s three highest paid executives, including CEO Larry Young, all saw their pay increase more than 100% between 2007 and 2009. The company’s stock has rocketed 28% since its most recent earnings announcement in February of 2010. In fact, its stock price is outperforming the industry as a whole by 443% since that earnings release.
But instead of being a responsible corporate citizen, Dr. Pepper Snapple and Mott’s are looking to take advantage of the economic misery of upstate New York. They are looking to take money out of the pockets of workers not because they need to but because they feel that they can get away with it and that workers will have no choice but to accept their offer.
UFCW Local 1116 in Duluth, Minnesota, is asking you to support their brothers and sisters in New York by boycotting Mott’s products. They include:
Mott’s Apple Sauce
Hawaiian Punch
Margaritaville
Mr. and Mrs. T Products
Welch’s Grape Juice 64oz
Rose’s Lime Juice
Snapple cans
Mott’s Fruitsations
Mott’s Garden Cocktail
ReaLemon/ReaLime
Holland House
Clamato
If you have any questions, want to help the Mott’s workers, or want further information, please don’t hesitate to contact Tamara Jones at 1-218-728-5174 or via email at tjones @ ufcw1116.org.
thanks, Paul, for fixing my formatting! 😀
I pity the fool that doesn’t buy Mr. & Mrs. T’s Bloody Mary Mix!
I like UFCW’s presentation. (Is that “United Food and Commercial Workers”?) By contrasting the changes in workers’ pay with that of the CEO and shareholders, over the same period, they really seem to have a strong case. Go Workers!
Zing Zang Bloody Mary Mix is the standard they should all be held to!
What do members of RWDSU-UFCW Local 220 in Williamson, NY make per hour?
For what it is worth, I do not drink or eat any of their products, especially Calmato.
Tamara,
Good for you for standing up and making yourself feel good. You know about this, you must really be doing something!
Swan – I will get you the information you’re wondering – just was extra-busy today.
Lee – not sure if you were being sarcastic, so I will err on the side of thanks! 😀
Well, let’s hope the union gets what it’s asking for and Mott’s closes the plant, thereby giving way more than a $1.50/hr pay cut. You’d think in the era of globalization, especially in labor-controlled St. Louis County, people would start realizing that unions don’t protect jobs, they eliminate them.
Nick, has your boss ever taken money away from you after posting solid profits simply because he wants to?
I consider myself lucky that mine pays me a far better than average wage and provides me with a health plan, retirement, and profit-sharing programs, sans union.
Most workers, however, aren’t as fortunate. These people are fighting to keep money from being taken away from them. Had there not been the union, these workers would have no recourse but to bend over and take it.
Think what you will about organized labor, but having your pay cut when you don’t make that much anyhow is tantamount to financial rape.
Globalization eliminates jobs.
The average wage for a Williamson, NY Mott’s worker is $20/hour. That is including skilled trades. If you remove the skilled trades, it drops down to $16/hour. Sounds like a lot?
Maybe not. According to the New York State Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the mean wage for a food manufacturing worker in Wayne County (where the plant is located) was $25.25 per hour in the 3rd quarter of 2009. So in reality, the Mott’s workers make less than the average for their area.
So, who’s got the Motts? Not the workers, that’s for sure…
$16-$25/ hour seems like enough to pay the bills for a typical household. This is the free market doing what it does, maximizing profits. Whats the problem? If you do not like the way a company operates start your own company.
Yes B-Man, its a totally free market, not a rigged economy at all…
B-man: you are basing your judgement of a typical household on what it’s like to live around here. The cost of living out there may very well be higher than here.
Even so, if the average worker makes $25 and the Mott’s folks are making $16, there’s a problem.
b-MAN. nice boots straps argument. Yeah, Mott’s was started just yesterday and it’s easy to get loans to start a business. I like how the libertarians answer to everything is to just “do it” like it’s that easy. $1.50 an hour is $60 X 52 =$3,120 (not fun and not cool)
I have never said “it’s easy” I just said you can (a)do it your way, or (b)go with what is offered.
Go ahead and boycott, demonstrate, and protest. Motts will still make decisions based on profits, not humanity.
Bitching is a hobby not a solution.
It is not just about a $1.50 per hour wage cut. Dr.Pepper also wanted to eliminate the pension plan, reduce the 401k contribution by 20% and almost triple the healthcare premiums while moving to a new health insurance with less coverage. It amounted to a decreased salary, no retirement and expensive crappy healthcare. At a time when the company is thriving, (recording a net profit of over $550,000,000 in 2009) it is plain old corporate greed. Stay strong Local 220!
I am one of the striking workers from the Williamson plant. The pay range stated above is correct. I work(ed) in the Batch Dept. as a Blender for 5 years. Personally speaking (not for the entire union, mind you), B-Man is slightly wrong. I’ve seen plenty of people “bitch” and get what they want, so technically, it IS a solution. And yes, the possibility exists where the owners can lock the doors and sell the plant. My family is prepared for that. I just want folks like B-Man to rest easy knowing that employees like myself should have the mentality that: It doesn’t matter what you do or how hard you work; all that matters is where you live.