Area Workers Support Mott's Strike

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Local grocery workers are supporting a month-old strike in upstate New York. Three hundred workers at Mott’s were forced out on strike last month when the company slashed wages, benefits and undercut retirement security. UFCW Local 400 is supporting their fellow members at UFCW Local 220 in Williamson, NY, by distributing flyers in metro Washington-area grocery stores urging consumers not to buy products made by Mott’s or by Mott’s owner Dr. Pepper/Snapple (DPS). “The plant manager compared us to commodities in the grocery store,” Larry Culver, a 15-year mechanic in the upstate New York facility, told Labor Notes, “and he said we were overpriced.” Meanwhile, the three highest paid executives at DPS doubled their pay between 2007 and 2009 and company stock has rocketed 28% since the most recent earnings announcement in February. Click here for a complete list of boycotted products and here for more on the strike. - Lizet Ramirez, AFL-CIO Union Summer Intern