Labor & Employment Law

Is the Applesauce King a Greedy Corporate Despot?

By Mike Hall

Dr. Pepper Snapple (DPS), the food and drink conglomerate that owns Mott’s of applesauce and apple juice fame, made $550 million in profits last year and paid its CEO, Larry Young, $6.5 million in total compensation–double what he earned in 2007. Darn good numbers in the middle of the worst economic down turn in decades.

At the same time Young and DPS are raking in millions, they are ready to drastically cut the wages, pension and health benefits of the 300 full-time workers at Mott’s upstate New York plant, it’s only applesauce plant.

Yesterday, several of those workers from the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union/UFCW (RWDSU/) Local 220 confronted Young and the DPS board of directors at the company’s shareholder meeting in Frisco, Texas.

The workers’ contract at the Williamson, N.Y., plant expired April 16 and the company demanded a $1.50 per hour wage cut for all workers, a pension freeze for current employees and elimination of a pension for future employees, decreased employer contributions to the company’s 401(k) retirement plan and increased employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays.

The workers overwhelming rejected the contract and now DPS has vowed to implement those cuts starting Sunday. Timothy Budd, who has worked at the plant for 24 years, told Young and the DPS board, “Forcing these cuts on us when DPS made $555 million in profit last year is unacceptable.”

Why do you want to cut the wages and benefits of the very people whose hard work and dedication contribute to the company’s success and help make Mott’s such a successful brand?

In a recent column on Huffington Post RWDSU President Stuart Applebaum wrote:

This is a prime example of corporate America attempting to undermine wage and benefit standards at a time when workers can least afford it. It’s about taking family-sustaining jobs in this country and reducing them to a shell of what they used to be. It’s about making shareholders rich by making a buck off the backs of workers.

The workers at Mott’s have authorized an unfair labor practice strike and the union is continuing to demand the company bargain in good faith to reach a contract. If the walkout takes place, RWDSU plans a campaign to build solidarity among union members and support among the public, including setting up informational pickets at locations throughout the United States and Canada to educate consumers about Mott’s/DPS labor practices.

For more information on the workers’ struggle at Mott’s, click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 21, 2010 (boomark / email).