Eight weeks into strike, Mott’s workers still holding the line

*Their signs read “We’ll stop walking when they start talking.” As they approached the third month of an increasingly bitter labor dispute, members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, part of the UFCW, maintained their vigil in front of a Mott’s apple processing plant near Rochester, N.Y.

Mott’s parent company, Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group, is using employees from other juice and applesauce plants, as well as newly-hired “replacement workers,” to run the factory.

Local 220 Regional Field Director Randy Belliel told a local television station that his workers were a “strong group.”  “We’ll be out here until we get this dispute resolved,” Belliel said.

Member Juan Gardiner told reporters he has asked family members for help paying the bills, but he wouldn’t think of crossing the picket line to return to his job until a fair agreement is reached.

Three hundred and five Mott’s workers walked off the job at the beginning of June when the company’s “last, best and final offer” called for $1.50 wage cuts across the board, elimination of pensions for new employees and a pension freeze for all employees.

The union members have noted that pay and bonuses for Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group’s top officers have increased more than 100 percent since 2008.