More than 400 members of Teamsters Local 792 walked off the job June 11 at the New York-based Pepsi Bottling Group, the nation's largest Pepsi bottler. Workers overwhelmingly rejected the company's final contract offer 364 to 14. The Burnsville plant supplies Pepsi's beverages to the seven-county Twin Cities metro area.

Workers on the picket line said Pepsi has hired at least 100 security guards from Huffmeister Security, which looks like a small military operation deployed in the area. Clerical workers who are not in the union have been threatened with firing if they don't cross the picket line and do production work.

A Teamsters local official at the picket line said that all interviews go through the head negotiator, but a number of workers described their fight.

One striking driver on the picket line said, "Spread the word, drink up all the 'Dew' you can. We figure in a couple weeks the shelves will be empty." Mountain Dew, a product bottled at the Pepsi plant, is the most popular Pepsi beverage in the Twin Cities area, according to strikers. Teamsters said if the strike continues they expect Pepsi products to be unavailable at stores by the Fourth of July weekend, a time when soft drinks are in high demand.

Local 792 also organizes more than 500 workers at Midwest Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in nearby Eagan, Minnesota. The company distributes the majority of Coke products in Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

According to workers on the picket line at Pepsi, Coca-Cola workers overwhelmingly voted June 11 to reject a contract offer. Teamsters at the Pepsi plant picket line said workers at Coca-Cola receive better compensation for the same work because they had fought, including by striking, over a number of contracts in the past decade. One worker noted that Coca-Cola workers have higher wages and a better pension plan.

The strikers at Pepsi are demanding a wage increase, improved pensions, and a halt to rising health care costs. Many of the drivers, salespeople, and other workers are on the job up to 16 hours a day. The workers want a pension plan that would allow them to retire before the age of 62 without penalties. The Star Tribune quoted striker Jeff Christiansan, 46, saying, "I don't have 16 years left in me. If I have to retire early then what am I supposed to do."

Larry Yoswa, secretary-treasurer of Local 792, told the Tribune that Pepsi wants to send its fountain products in bulk to central warehouses for big accounts such as Burger King and Taco Bell, a move that would go against union drivers because they work on commission.

The local has organized roving pickets that follow every truck as it leaves the plant. They set up pickets where the scab management drivers stop to unload. Workers explained that solidarity has been good. Many people honk in support as they go by, and an Oklahoma truck driver refused to cross the picket line with much needed supplies for production.

The last time Pepsi workers struck the plant was in 1985. During that walkout, which lasted 10–12 days, and made a slight gain, only the drivers were in the Teamsters union. Since then, the local now represents production workers, loaders, delivery salespeople, and vending machine technicians who operate from the Burnsville plant.  
 
 
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