Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 6, 2010, Monday

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Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (New York)

September 6, 2010, Monday

Mott's strike rages on with no end in sight

BYLINE: By, Matthew Daneman and Emily Shearing

BODY:
You might spend today watching the annual Labor Day Parade wind through downtown Rochester or grilling white hots on what is typically the send-off to summer.

Close to 300 workers from the Mott's plant in Williamson, Wayne County, are spending Labor Day the same way they have the past 105 - on strike.

And roughly 175 western New York apple growers are nervously checking the chemistry on their ripening McIntosh crop, which will be ready to pick any day now.

"We're certainly concerned as an industry, when our apples rely on (the Mott's plant) as much as it does, what their capacity is and what they'll pull out of this area," said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association. "Any-thing less than normal could end up being an issue to the whole region."

The workers at the apple processing plant walked off the job May 23 over proposed cuts in pay and benefits, and the strike has since stretched into one of the longest in recent area history.
"It's amazing people have stood out for so long," said Stuart Appelbaum, national president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., the Texas-based owner of Mott's, has painted the cuts it's seeking as being in line with its fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to maximize profits. The company says the $21-per-hour average wage of plant workers is too high for the Rochester area.

The union has talked in terms of its fight being a front line in a larger battle for the American middle class.

"What is going to stop any other employer in western New York from asking the same things Dr Pepper Snapple Group did?" Appelbaum asked. "When an employer has said we have problems and we need help, we're willing to work that out with the employer. This case it's just the opposite. When a company is profitable, we don't expect them to wring more concessions out of workers."

Dr Pepper Snapple posted a profit of $555 million in 2009.

Union and company officials held fruitless talks more than a week ago. No new talks are scheduled.

Strike pay

JoAnn Budd of Williamson has worked at Mott's for 24 years with her husband, Tim. But on a hot morning last week, she was stuck outside the plant cleaning up after a night crew of strikers and alternating between sitting in her camping chair and walking the picket line with a sign that read "Corporate Greed." "No one wants to be out here," Budd said. "We want to work for our money. If they cared about us, we wouldn't be out here. They want to take money from us to put in the stockholders' pockets."

In lieu of their paychecks, the strikers are living off approximately $200 a week in strike pay plus unemployment benefits. With five children to care for and a recent bout with stomach cancer, Budd said a major issue for her was access to health insurance - the cost of which would have gone up sizably under the company's proposed contract. Budd said she has had to skip two doctor's appointments because she has no health insurance while on strike.

"I hope and pray every day (the strike) will be over," she said. "These are families out here."
Lyla Velez, who has worked at the plant for 29 years with her husband, Robert, said the longer the strike goes on, the more workers Mott's will lose. "They're going to look for other jobs," said the Sodus resident. Of Mott's, she said, "All they need to do is come back and talk to us."

Sitting in a circle of camping chairs with a cooler in the back of a pickup truck along the side of Route 104, strikers Bob Wenzel, Wayne Vermeulen and Chris Couperus tried to remain positive. Wenzel described his days on the picket line as monotonous. "We just want to go back to work," he said.

The workers don't argue they were underpaid. "These are good-paying jobs, we don't contest that," said Wenzel, who has worked at Mott's for 11 years. "You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone's that been here less than 10 years."

Growing cycle

Rebecca Givan, assistant professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University, said the Mott's strike has lasted long enough that workers can't escape feeling the hardship. "They have to have a strong resolve when the strike fund may be depleting and family may be hurting."

But, she added, "Right now no one's showing signs of compromise."

The strike is on a collision course with the state's apple-growing cycle, with this year's crop ready for harvest about 15 days early because of last spring's unseasonable warmth, Allen said.
While Mott's has indicated it plans to run the plant as usual, he said, "Quite honestly they haven't been tested under these labor issues."

New York's apple trees produced 32 million bushels in 2009, with about 16 million bushels being processed into products including applesauce, juice and cider. And more than 8 million bushels of those production apples went to the Williamson plant, Allen said.

The growers said last month they would cross the picket line to deliver their apples to the plant.
"We've been called scabs, not supporting the union," Allen said. "When it comes time to harvest, you've got to harvest. It's a tough situation. We feel bad for the people not working. It's not a situation the growing community wants to be in. But the disagreement is between labor and the manufacturer."
MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com
ESHEARING@DemocratandChronicle.com
Background
The Mott's strike began May 23 after the company imposed terms of its most recent contract offer, including a $1.50-per-hour pay cut, a 20 percent reduction in the company's contribution to workers' 401(k) retirement plans, and a pension freeze for current workers and pension elimination for future hires. The Williamson plant makes products in-cluding applesauce, apple juice and Clamato juice.

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