RWDSU Protests as Bad Apple Comes to Big Apple (5/13/10)

Members of the RWDSU staged a protest today against Mr. Larry Young, President and CEO of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group during his address at the the Goldman Sachs Consumer Products Symposium.   The RWDSU has been trying to reach a fair contract for their members working at the Mott's manufacturing plant outside of Rochester, NY for months.  Mott's is a subsidiary of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. To date, Mott’s executives have offered only hurtful cuts to wages, pensions and healthcare benefits as well as givebacks despite the fact that the company remains very profitable.

The Williamson, NY-based Mott's plant employs 300 workers represented by RWDSU Local 220. Local 220 members voted in favor of authorizing the union leadership to call a strike on April 18th.  

“They are making lots of money, the plant is busy, and business is good, but they still want to slash our pay and benefits,” said Anderson lopez (above), who has worked at Mott’s in Williamson for 13 years, and made the trip to New York City to join the protest. “There is no good reason for it besides greed.”

When asked why corporate executives were proposing concessions while the company was prospering, their answer was more outrageous than the concessions themselves.  Dr. Pepper Snapple Group stated that the current economic recession is an opportunity for them to make “corrections” to employee wages and benefits.  Dr. Pepper Snapple executives then compared workers to commodities, saying that as supply goes up, the price should go down.

 “Larry Young has become the poster child for corporate greed,” said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum.  "Mr. Young is taking advantage of the weak economy to exploit our hard-working members - some of whom have worked for Mott's for more than 40 years.   The company says the workers are paid too much.  Well, we say maybe Larry Young making $7 million a year is being paid too much.  The people of the Big Apple should know when a bad apple is in our city.”

RWDSU Local 220’s contract expired on April 15th.  U.S. Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY) has called on Mott’s executives to get back to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair contract for the workers at upstate plant.

“It has come to my attention that the company has sought to cut workers’ hourly wages, pension and other benefits despite the fact that the company is financially healthy,” said Senator Gillibrand in a letter addressed to Larry Young.  “I ask you and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to do whatever possible to help preserve good paying jobs here in New York State.”
 
Last year, the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group had over $5.5 billion in net sales and $555 million in net income, the highest reported yearly net income in the past five years.  Despite this economic boom, they have offered only a scathing wage cut of $1.50 per hour, a 20 percent reduction in the employer 401K contribution, a pension freeze, and increased employee contributions and co-pays for health care.