Work is physically demanding and pickets report that many of them work very long hours, some up to 16 hours a day. The strikers are fighting for a pension plan that would allow them to retire before the age of 62 without any penalties.

The strike began when workers rejected the company's "final" contract offer by a vote of 364 to 14. Workers said that in the week before the contract vote, Pepsi brought in private security guards from Huffmeister Security in an attempt to intimidate the unionists.

Dick Perron, a filler operator on the production line, said, "I've never seen intimidation like this in my life." He said the security guards were at all the gates and were always "just trying to stare you down."

Perron explained also that Pepsi started bringing in management personnel from other bottling plants to work as strikebreakers. The managers would go from worker to worker asking them how to run the machines.

When one manager asked Perron how to run the filler operator, he said, "I'm not comfortable telling you anything." Most workers, he said, refused to tell the bosses how to run the machines.

Local 792 also organizes more than 500 workers at a nearby Coca-Cola bottling plant, as well as the workers at several beer delivery companies. The Coca-Cola workers just approved a new contract, but union officials have not yet released details.

Strikers report that Pepsi production is down. A survey by the June 23 Saint Paul Pioneer Press of eight convenience stores and one drug store "found that most [stores] had experienced dwindling Pepsi supplies during the past 10 days. A couple of store managers said they ran out of Pepsi products for a short time." Strikers are hoping to affect the production and distribution of Pepsi products just as the demand for them increases during the hot summer months.

The strikers picket the Pepsi plant 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at all five plant gates. They report that none of the union members who walked off the job have crossed the picket line. Besides the picket line at the plant, the union also sends out roving pickets who throw up picket lines at the stores to which the scab trucks deliver.

The picket lines at the plant are lively. When a scab truck tries to leave, it is immediately surrounded by strikers who try to persuade the driver not to cross the line. While this is happening, other Teamsters collect information on the truck and pass it on via radio to the roving pickets so they can identify the trucks and follow them.

The union has called a boycott against all products made and distributed at the Burnsville Pepsi bottling plant. Products from the plant are distributed throughout the upper Midwest.

One worker said that about 20 strikers a day have gone to a food festival sponsored by Pepsi to pass out leaflets on the boycott and talk to other working people about the strike. The festival, called "A Taste of Minnesota," is taking place on the grounds of the state capitol.

Strikers report they have been visited by Northwest Airlines workers, United Auto Workers members, beer delivery drivers, and hotel workers who recently concluded a strike. One striking Teamster said, "It takes us by surprise, the amount of support we get from unions and the public."

"We will stay out until we win," is a conviction commonly expressed by striking Teamsters on the picket line.  
 
 
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