MOTT'S BITES THE BIG ONE

Williamson, N.Y. -- More than three hundred workers at the highly profitable Mott's plant in Williamson, New York are on their 30th day of protesting deep cuts in pay and benefits while the company they have been laboring for reaches out to an eager, unskilled temporary workforce. The employer’s refusal to bargain a fair contract defies logic.

On June 14, and in separate letters to Larry D. Young, President and CEO of Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., and Carole Swan, President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), leading Canadian officials expressed serious concerns regarding the health and safety risks of Mott's beverages in light of the company's use of untrained, inexperienced temporary workers to replace its highly-skilled workforce currently on strike.

Mott's is produced by Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS), the North American beverages division spun off by Cadbury Schweppes in 2008, whose leading brands in addition to Mott's include Snapple, Yoo-hoo, A&W and Hires root beers, Crush, Sunkist, Hawaiian Punch, Canada Dry, Squirt, RC Cola, Diet Rite, and of course Schweppes, among others. The Williamson plant is the only Mott's facility to make the company's popular apple sauce and organic apple juice concentrate. Local labor activists are encouraging consumers to forgo these products until further notice.

DPS has been enjoying record profits, earning $555 million and increased their market share in a highly competitive beverage sector. Shareholders have seen the company's stock soar and the CEO has given himself a 113% compensation increase to $6.5 million annually. If this doesn’t fit the definition of greed, I don’t know what does.

DPS implemented an across the board reduction of $1.50 per hour, eliminated the pension, increased employee health care contributions and cut the 401k benefit by 20 percent. Workers strongly rejected these demands and authorized the union's negotiating committee to call an unfair labor practice strike, which began one month ago.

According to several news outlets, strikers have been traveling the country telling their story and letting DPS know wherever DPS is, Local 220 members will follow. In Texas, RWDSU members turned out for the annual shareholder meeting on May 20 to question the CEO and Board members about the rationale behind aggressive pay cuts at a time of record growth, profits and executive compensation. In response, they were told they were overpaid - despite the fact that their pay is in line with the average wage in their industry and geography.

DPS also failed to explain how they reconcile the clear conflict of interest and breach of ethics posed by the membership on the DPS Board of Anne Szostak. Szostak is also on the Board of Directors of the SFN Group, whose Spherion supplies temporary agency workers (and potential strikebreakers!) to the Williamson plant. DPS corporate governance guidelines explicitly precludes such relationships.

Besides the main protest taking place in our back yard, strikers and supporters have taken their message to consumers in Galveston, TX and St. Louis, MO. Picket lines were extended to another Mott’s plant in Aspers, PA.

The Mott's workers are standing up to rampant corporate greed-and holding the line for decent pay and conditions where they work, in their community and for US food and beverage workers as a whole. They need our support now.

You can support their struggle – please send a message to Mott's telling them to stop assaulting living standards and start bargaining in good faith!

Commentary authored by Ove Overmyer