Support BCTGM Workers Striking Redco Foods/Salada Tea!
BCTGM Local 50 members in Little Falls, NY are taking a stand! They are resisting the attempt by the German management of their company to lower standards for American workers. They need your help!
BCTGM members have been on strike since November 1, 2007 against Redco Foods, makers of Salada and Red Rose teas and Junket dessert. The Local 50 members have braved frost, ice storms and blizzards to defend American living standards.
Redco/Salada, with production facilities in Little Falls NY, was bought by a German multinational company, Teekane Group, in 1995. German management is now trying to impose inferior terms and conditions of employment on new hires that would undermine those the American workforce gained over many years of hard work.
The company's demands would impose terms and conditions inferior to those of the parent company's employees in Germany.
The BCTGM contract with Redco expired on July 1 2007. Months of bargaining proved fruitless as Redco management was determined to impose its giveback demands. US management, acting for the German owners, did not bargain constructively with the workers who, on average have 23 years of service to the company. So, reluctantly, union members voted to strike in defense of their living standards.
The company has responded to the strike by bringing in scabs, including technicians from Germany, and using management to keep the machines running. The company still refuses to bargain constructively, rejecting without consideration union offers of compromise.
BCTGM pickets have held the line all through the holidays and winter's worst. They have not wavered. Now they need your help.
While German management is willing to negotiate and live with a fair union contract (and the greater legal rights of workers) in Germany, for some reason they think American workers deserve less and have no rights that need be respected.
We disagree.
U.S. workers work harder than workers anywhere in the industrial world. Workers in Little Falls, NY deserve the same standard of living as workers in Germany. Americans' work has value, and Little Falls workers deserve a fair share of the profits they make for their German bosses.
U.S. workers work harder than workers anywhere in the industrial world. Workers in Little Falls, NY deserve the same standard of living as workers in Germany. Americans' work has value, and Little Falls workers deserve a fair share of the profits they make for their German bosses.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Write Redco's German owners and urge them to instruct U.S. management to return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith for a mutually acceptable contract that recognizes and respects its hard working American employees.
BCTGM Local 50 members thank you for your help!
Tell me more
I am writing to ask you to send your American managers at Redco Foods back to the bargaining table.
Organized Redco workers in Little Falls, NY have been forced out on strike through winter's worst to defend the living standards they achieved during years of hard work for Salada/Red Rose Tea. With an average of 23 years working for your company, these workers deserve to be treated with respect.
Even though your multinational tea company is profitable and the families that own it are wealthy, your US management insists on imposing inferior terms and conditions on future workers, undermining the living standards of your current employees and the Little Falls community.
Your workers in Little Falls have worked every day to make your company profitable. They deserve no less than workers in Germany. Yet US management refuses to bargain in good faith. Well known brands like Salada and Red Rose tea will suffer when the arrogance and intransigence of management's position becomes known.
To restore the reputation of Salada and Red Rose teas and sustain Teekane's, I ask that you direct your US management to bargain in good faith a contract mutually acceptable to the parties that sustains American living and working standards and treat your employees with respect.
