Contract freezes wages for three years, requires employees to pay 20 percent of health costs, and ends pensions for new hires.
View full sizeJose Maldonado, shown in a photo from July 21, picketed eight hours a day, five days a week, outside the Mott's processing plant on Route 104 in Williamson. He is one of about 300 union workers who have been on strike since May 23. Williamson, NY -- The 16-week strike at the Mott’s processing plant in Williamson is coming to an end.
Members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 220, which represents the workers, approved the company’s most recent contract offer by a vote of 185-62, said union local president Michael Leberth.
Leberth said the contract consists of freezing wages for three years, a $1,000 per person signing bonus, the company picks up 80 percent of the medical insurance and employees pick up 20 percent, no pensions for new hires but they receive a 4 percent match on their 401(k) plan and current workers get a 2 percent match on their 401(k) plan.
Leberth said this was the same offer the company made earlier that union members rejected in a vote on Labor Day.
The strike is one of the longest and most contentious in the Central New York area in many years. The plant’s 305 workers walked off the job May 23 rather than accept cuts in benefits and pay. Williamson is 60 miles west of Syracuse in Wayne County.
Mott’s is owned by Dr. Pepper Snapple group out of Plano, Texas. The strike has become a hot issue in Central and Western New York as the apple picking season
gets into full gear.
James Allen, president of the New York Apple Association, said so far, workers were handling all the apple shipments to the plant. But he was worried what would happen in the next couple of weeks as the harvest picks up and more and more truckloads of apples were dropped off to be made into applesauce and juice.
“We’re relieved the strike is settled and the plant can get back up to full production,” he said.
Jack Torrice, owner of Fruit Valley Orchard in the town of Oswego, said he's glad the strike is over. He hadn't shipped any apples to Mott's as of yet, but wondered if there would be any problems from the striking workers when he delivered his shipment.
"We don't need any animosity," he said. "I'm glad it's over."
The strike was such a hot issue that U.S. senators, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Rep. Daniel Maffei, D-Syracuse, the New York city council and even some members of the Canadian Parliament wrote to Dr. Pepper Snapple officials.
“As we hit the apple harvest high season, it is great news that the first-rate workers at Mott's are back doing what they do best: turning New York's world-class apple crop into a great products for American families,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday.