Want a job? Mott's plant in Wayne County is hiring strike breakers

[eilen]

A strike at the Mott’s Inc. apple-processing plant has entered its 10th week, with no end in sight. The plant’s 305 workers walked out May 23 rather than accept cuts in benefits and pay. The result is a good, old-fashioned strike, the kind which has grown uncommon.
Both sides have deployed hardball tactics. The union uses aggressive picketing, urges boycotts, invokes class warfare and mobilizes its friends in political office. Management from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group has hired a new work force of at least 100 temps and is testing just how desperate the Upstate job market has become.

......

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents the workers, says the company is taking advantage of a flooded job market. Otherwise, it would not have imposed a $1.50-an-hour pay cut on workers a year after the company earned a record $555 million profit, said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU.

.....
The company, based in Plano, Texas, blames the union for the pay cut. During contract negotiations over the winter and spring, the company offered to keep wages unchanged in the new contract. But the union rejected the offer because it came with reduced benefits.
Under the company’s proposal, workers would have to contribute 5 percent more for their health insurance premiums, their pension plans would be frozen, the company would decrease its 401(k) match from 5 percent to 4 percent, and it could move a worker into a lower-paying job (previously, the worker would get the higher pay for 30 days).

n April, the company gave its final offer that included a $1.50-an-hour cut in pay. The company’s position: Mott’s workers make an average of $21 an hour, which it says is about $7 more than the average wage for a similar job in Western New York. The company imposed the cuts, and after a few weeks the union struck.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/want_a_job_motts_plant_in_wayn.html

[bluestateguy]

1. You mean scabs?

(or scums)

Any American who crosses a union picket line is someone that I would never speak to again.

[nosmokes]

2. Oh, I'd speak to 'em, but it wouldn't be words of endearment...

and yes, the OP does mean the low form of life known as a scab.

[SlipperySlope]

7. Too bad they can't unionize

I'd love to see a "Scab Workers Local #207".

[Hugabear]

3. I would sooner beg for money on a street corner than cross a picket line

Of course this is exactly what the company is counting on, that with the harsh economic times, desperate people will be willing to cross the line and earn the "scab" nickname. Such a truly awful situation.

[Peter1x9]

4. I'm sure the CEO will also be given a paycut.

:sarcasm:

"Dr Pepper Snapple’s CEO, Larry Young, earned $6.5 million last year. While the Mott’s workers made $300 a week in strike pay, he went on a company-paid hunting trip to New Zealand on the corporate jet, the union said, citing flight records."

[nosmokes]

5. Yeah, right after they cut the dividend payment...n/t

[Sherman A1]

6. I have stopped buying Motts & Dr. Pepper

I don't know if it helps much, but doesn't hurt I suppose.

[Omaha Steve]

8. The guy in front of me was buying Mott's juice yesterday at the store

If I had had more time standing next to him, I would have talked to him about the boycott.