Vol. 74/No. 23      June 14, 2010

The more than 350 workers in Indianola, and 450 in Isola, most of whom are Black women, are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1529. They haven’t had a pay raise since 2006, making an average of $8 to $9 per hour.

Company demands include a seven-day workweek, doubling the probationary period for new hires to six months, tripling worker contributions to company health insurance over three years, and eliminating severance pay if the plant closes.

Workers at Delta Pride won their first strike in 1990 after three months on the picket line, during which the company hired scabs and workers were arrested, beaten, and shot at. The strikers reached out and won solidarity from labor unions and civil rights organizations.

—Jacquie Henderson

Unionists strike Mott’s
plant in New York
Some 300 workers at Mott’s apple juice plant in Williamson, 20 miles east of Rochester, New York, walked out May 23 after rejecting concessions demanded by the company. The contract offer calls for a $1.50 an hour wage cut, eliminating pensions for future employees, and reducing company 401(k) contributions.

Mott’s unilaterally began implementing these terms after the previous union contract expired April 15. The workers, organized by Local 220 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, responded by going on strike.

Mott’s is owned by Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. It reported profits of some $550 million last year, according to union officials. The bosses are attempting to operate the plant with temporary workers and company staff, according to the Rochester Business Journal.

—Brian Williams

N.Y.C.: Co-op City workers
picket over wage freeze
With the company demanding a four-year wage freeze, 500 workers employed at the Co-op City apartment buildings in the Bronx, New York, set up picket lines June 1. The workers were locked out by RiverBay Corporation as their contract expired at 12:01 a.m. that morning. The pact covers porters, and maintenance, sanitation, and grounds workers who are members of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.

“It’s a slap in the face to hear RiverBay say we don’t deserve cost-of-living wage increases,” said Courtney Lumley, a resident and 15-year maintenance worker at Co-op City, according to a union news release. Co-op City, where 55,000 people live across 35 high-rise buildings, is the largest housing development in the country.

—Brian Williams

Protest actions in France
oppose raising retirement age
Hundreds of thousands of workers conducted a one-day strike in France May 27 to protest government plans to raise the retirement age above 60. According to the CGT union, 176 separate protests took place across France that day. A government spokesperson said the actions involved about 13 percent of public sector workers nationwide.

Paris is considering upping the retirement age to 62 or 63 and extending the number of working years required to receive a full pension from 40.5 to 42, according to Reuters. Workers won a reduction in the retirement age in 1983 when it was cut from 65 to 60.

—Brian Williams
 
 
Related articles:
Strikers win wage increase at Honda factory in China
Cabin crew workers walk out at British Airways  
 
 
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