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Dr Pepper responds to call to resume talks with union
In an official news release on the Dr Pepper Snapple Group website, the company responds to US labour secretary Hilda Solis’s call to resume talks with union in Williamson, NY.
The statements reads …
We appreciate the labour secretary’s call to resume discussions with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) on a new labour contract for workers at our plant in Williamson, NY. In fact, that’s exactly what we did when we sat down with union leadership in Dallas in late August. We reached a tentative agreement on several key issues related to wages, pension, 401(k) employer match and a ratification bonus that would have resolved the strike.
We question the commitment of the union to resolving the strike, given the bargaining unit’s overwhelming vote against this tentative agreement reached by their own leaders.
As we shared earlier, the terms of the tentative agreement with union leadership included:
- Unchanged wages for three years, which would have kept the average wage in Williamson at more than $21 an hour – approximately 50% more than the typical manufacturing wage in the Rochester metro area.
- A $1,000 contract ratification bonus.
- 30 days’ notice on wage changes in the event of a change in work classification.
- Maintain pension for existing employees and reduce 401K match from 5% to 2%. New employees would receive no pension and a 4% match on 401(k).
- A health insurance plan with a comparable cost structure to policies available to other workers at DPS and peer companies. This included an 80/20 company-to-employee split on health insurance premium costs. The company also offered a 50–50 split on annual premium increases in excess of 10%.
We believe the tentative agreement, jointly crafted with RWDSU leadership, was fair. However, as soon as the union membership voted against it, the union leadership changed its tune, complaining that the proposed reduction in 401(k) employer match for current employees (from 5% to 2%) would cost $3,600. Based on the average employee wage of just over $21 per hour, the difference in contribution on a per employee basis would be more like $1,310 – about two-thirds less than the figure used by the union.
Importantly, in the meeting in Dallas, which included DPS president & CEO Larry Young and union president Stuart Appelbaum, Mr Appelbaum said the pension was the main issue. What he left out of his 3 September statement was that we tentatively agreed to keep the pension in place for current employees (in exchange for the 401(k) employer match reduction described above). Future employees would receive no pension but a 4% match, consistent with the terms of our last, best and final offer.
It’s also worth noting that the $1,000 ratification bonus offered as part of the terms subsequently voted down by the members was $250 higher than the union leadership requested.
Not only would this agreement have kept compensation well above local averages, but it would also help us achieve our objective to improve the competitiveness and flexibility of the Williamson plant, which has the lowest operating efficiency of any DPS manufacturing facility.
Our employees are very important to us, and we’re disappointed they will not work with us to address these challenges. The Williamson plant is running and continuing to approach pre-strike production levels, and we’re focused on serving our customers.
Source: Dr Pepper Snapple Group
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