BY TONY LANE AND LINN HAMILTON
BERLIN, Pennsylvania - Members of Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union (RWDSU) Local 1718 in Berlin,
Pennsylvania, May 29 rejected their employer's latest offer by
a 81 to 47 vote and decided to remain on strike at the Snyder
Potato Chip plant. Mark Werner, president of Local 1718
stated, "If the union is going to go down, it would be better
if the union went down fighting." This was a common sentiment
that was often expressed by many members of the local union.
Some 165 workers put up picket lines at the Snyder of Berlin potato chip plant here April 12. Workers reported that the company is threatening to restart production on June 1. Agrilink, which manages the plant for Pro-Fac, a farmers' cooperative, offered the workers a $1.60-per-hour raise over three years. Workers rejected the initial contract by 80 percent.
Rick Decker, vice president of Local 1718, said the latest offer made by Agrilink in a late night session on May 27 held little advantage for workers but a bundle of concessions for the company. Decker said, "The total package was equal to what the company had been paying in the past when the wage increases and the health plan give backs were balanced." He added, "The main problem with the company's offer was that the union was being asked to make 20 concessions and these would virtually eliminate overtime pay, which would spell big losses for the workers and make big profits for the company." In addition, he said, the company would institute flex-time hours and be able to bring in new automation without any union input on the subject.
Ken Thomas, a worker on the picket line, expressed his disbelief that the Agrilink management would not bargain in good faith with the workers who had been so loyal to the plant over the last 20 years. "The new management team of Agrilink has an entirely different attitude towards the workers. It is like a war in there between management and the worker," Thomas said.
Community support for the strike was evident when these reporters visited the dozen or so picketers on the line. Support has also been shown through two gatherings, including a rally of 100 people May 8. Members of the local teachers union, nurses union, and three workers from a plant organized by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) in Salisbury, Pennsylvania, took part in the event. Workers reported to the Militant that two RWDSU members from Michigan had driven eight hours to show their support.
Workers on the picket line said the new employers installed obsolete equipment that produced mediocre chips. The workers objected when the bosses put in this inferior equipment.
Strikers also showed Militant reporters an editorial in The Daily American, a Somerset, Pennsylvania, newspaper, with the headline: "Strike at Snyder plant must end." The editorial floated the bosses' threat of closing the plan and attempted to drive a wedge between the strikers and farmers. "The loss of hundreds of jobs would be devastating not only to the community of Berlin but also to the rest of the county ... and would also affect the farmers who raise potatoes."
The union has reached out to some of the local farmers involved in the cooperative. The cooperative, Pro-Fac, consists of more than 100 farmers from Florida to Michigan, and some as far away as Washington State. These farmers grow potatoes, fruits, and vegetables, which are processed by the cooperative. Around 20 farmers provide potatoes for the Berlin plant. Pro-Fac also owns the Berlin plant and all its machinery. Pro-Fac has contracts with the individual farmers for their potatoes. We spoke with Tom Croner, one of three local potato farmers who send their produce to the plant. He opposed the strike, arguing that it has to be settled quickly or the potato farmers will have no local market. The 1999 potato crop is covered by contracts, but if these potatoes are not marketed the plant may go under. Croner stated that if the management gives the workers what they are requesting, the plant would go out of business.
The viewpoint of working farmers was reflected by two strikers with ties to the land who the Militant spoke to on the picket line. One said she and her husband had to sell their dairy herd in 1997. In addition to raising dairy heifers on the farm, she now works in the plant to help with the family income. A second picket stated that she and her husband sold their dairy herd in a government buyout in 1987, and now she works at the chip factory.