NEW YORK — Two hundred Teamsters ended a 16-day strike against Perrigo Co., an over-the-counter-drug manufacturer in the Bronx. The workers voted overwhelmingly to ratify a three-year contract Sept. 18.
The workers, members of Teamsters Local 210, won higher wages, defended their retirement benefits and beat back an attack on their schedules and overtime pay. Perrigo bosses were pressing to move from 10-hour to 12-hour shifts, with Saturdays at straight time and Sundays at time and a half. The new contract maintains double time for Sunday work.
The company harassed strikers and tried to intimidate them by hiring permanent replacements and asking strikers to cross the line. The bosses put up two large “Now hiring” banners at the gate in front of the plant. The workers stood firm, getting support from other unions and from many workers around the plant.
“They always ask the workers to sacrifice,” Mahmood Hossain told the Militant on the picket line Sept. 17. “We have families. Prices are going up. Now they want us to work 12-hour shifts with less overtime pay. How are we supposed to make it?”
“I’m worried about the ladies with kids at home,” said striker Irfan Virani. “How are families supposed to manage these 12-hour shifts?”
The strike defeated the attacks. “These Teamsters proved that when you stand together, you can beat back threats and win,” Lydia Torres, vice president of Local 210, told the press.
Paul Mailhot, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of New York City and a former Perrigo employee, joined the picket line Sept. 17. Virani asked him how he would deal with rampant corruption in the government. “The capitalist class is always corrupt, because it steals from our labor,” Mailhot said. “What matters is which class is in power, not which Democratic or Republican candidate is elected. Our campaign is about fighting for workers to take power.”
“I agree the capitalist system is a corrupt system,” said Virani. “And with how you explained the Republicans and Democrats have no program for working people. They go where the money is.”