Mott's Strikers Take A Stand For American Blue-Collar Workers

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

by Chris Garlock
They'd rather be making applesauce. Instead, the workers at Mott's have been on strike in upstate New York since May 23, in what they say is the latest battle against unchecked corporate greed. On Friday, while visiting my parents in nearby Rochester for the holiday weekend, I stopped by the picketline in Williamson to host the workers on Gloria Minott's Friday morning show on WPFW and to deliver letters of support from the Metro Washington Council and UFCW Local 400, a sister local to UFCW Local 220, which represents the 300 striking workers. "We've never had a strike in the 54 years the plant has been here, but enough is enough," line worker Fred Acevedo -- who's been working there 22 years -- told me, as cars and trucks whizzed past on the highway outside the Motts plant. The picketline stretches around the huge plant, delineated by a line of American flags planted in the ground, isolated knots of picketers and anchored by two huge inflatable rats that draw toots of support from the passing motorists. Mott's changed ownership two years ago, when previous owner Cadbury-Schweppes sold it to the Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) and the new owners made no secret of their intention to drive down wages and benefits, local 220 President Mike Leberth -- a lead production technician in the plant -- told me. "They said we were paid too much and that we were monkeys whose jobs could be done by anyone." The Mott's workers are fiercely proud of their plant, easily reeling off the mind-bloggling production stats that have put Mott's ubiquitous applesauce and juices on grocery shelves across the country. The 300 workers at the Williamson plant cook and package millions of pounds of apples into hundreds of thousands of single-serve containers and jars of applesauce, working around the clock 365 days a year, with each worker able to do several different jobs to keep the line moving. But in the months leading up to contract negotiations, the company steadily eliminated the little extras that workers say had made Mott's a close-knit family: the summer family picnic and the annual Christmas party, as well as more serious things like company-provided uniforms and safety shoes. "Not even a Dr. Pepper hat," said Acevedo indignantly. "If they were hurting economically, we'd understand," he added, "but they made half a billion profit last year." DPS insisted that a 10% wage increase was out of the question and instead slashed wages, benefits and job protections, "while giving the company CEO a 113% pay hike," Local 220 Recording Secretary Bruce Beal -- a label machine operator -- told me, squinting into the sun as the American flags fluttered in the breeze on the picketline behind him. "None of us want to be out here," he said, gesturing toward the picketers lining the highway, "but we won't let them strip away our rights without a fight. We're making a stand here for blue-collar workers in America against the corporate blueprint they'd like to impose on the rest of American workers."  In the DC area, UFCW Local 400 members continue to distribute flyers urging a boycott of Motts, Dr Pepper and Snapple; click here for details. - photos by Garlock (top right) and Ann Vollertsen, UFCW 220 member and Mott's filler-operator mechanic (photo at left)