Message from Phil Cooper
Secretary-Treasurer
MAY 2020
Secretary-Treasurer
MAY 2020
Hello Members, this is by far the hardest article that I have had to write since I became Secretary-Treasurer. It is hard to be positive with over 1.4 million cases of COVID-19 Virus and 90,000 deaths in our country in the last three months. I know the jobs that our members do are considered essential, (not expendable) and even though we were fortunate to have most of our members working during the ongoing pandemic, many of our members and their families were exposed to the virus and some lost loved ones and our Local even had one of our members from 7up, lost his life to the virus.
We had some of our employers like Pepsi and 7up step right up to the plate and offer their employees “Hero Pay” incentives for leaving their families each day and continue to work, even with the fear of catching the virus and taking it home to their families and friends
We had other companies like MillerCoors, and Budweiser follow suit with incentive pay for their workers after the Union reminded and persuaded them it was the right thing to do for their workers. Then there were companies like Reyes Coca-Cola that finally agreed to give their workers incentive pay, but it was tied to attendance. If you missed a day of work, you forfeited the incentive for that week. That kind of incentive would encourage workers to come to work even if they were not feeling well! For the members working for Reyes owned beer distributors, they never saw any incentive pay, none. Reyes was also the first to pull their incentive pay several weeks ago and we already heard that most of our employers will follow suit at the end of May.
We were able to finish the Reyes Coca-Cola negotiations on March 16th. With over 1400 members represented by Locals 896, 848, 952 and 986 affected by these negotiations, the fact that we were able to get these negotiations done before mandatory social distancing went into effect was a victory in itself.
Due to social distancing, the ratification was done very differently by each local. Some Locals voted on premise and others had mail in ballots, but in the end, the contract was overwhelmingly ratified by all Locals. This contract saw some of the best wages and pension contributions for our Coca-Cola members had seen in many years, and the committee members from each local did an amazing job. Our committee members were called on often because of their subject matter expertise and were a major part of the reason we received such a good contract.
If we would’ve postponed these negotiations, the negotiating committee agreed that a post pandemic contract would not have been anywhere close to the one we negotiated. The pandemic hit everyone hard including the companies we represent. While most of our members continued to work, peoples buying patterns changed. Keg beer sales vanished completely, and syrup sales fell off dramatically because of the loss of on-premise sales, two-liter sales suffered too. Some of the companies got creative in keeping members working while others did not.
The current pandemic caused the postponement of the Pepsi Riverside negotiations. The members had already rejected the companies final offer and the company had agreed to return to the table, but social distancing protocols has placed the negotiations on hold. On the heels of the successful Reyes Coca-Cola contract negotiations, the company decided to close their Carson branch here in Southern California and Union City distribution center in Northern California. Both shops were Teamster facilities, and with their closures, the members went to work at other facilities. Unfortunately, with layoffs in the Los Angeles and Downey Coke shops, the closures led to 45 Carson workers being laid off at this time. There are some signs of production ramping up soon which should help all laid off workers get back to work.
The sad closure of the Irwindale MillerCoors Brewery continues to move forward. April and May saw the first round of permanent layoffs. June and July will see even more layoffs with the last of the workers getting laid off with the final closure of the Brewery, August 28th. On May 5th, we did hear some positive news when Pabst announced that they will be purchasing the Irwindale Brewery. While this is good news, the Pabst volume that our members working in Irwindale were producing, saw this volume transferred to the Teamster Brewery in Fort Worth Texas and to the non-union Coors Brewery in Golden Colorado. With Pabst products being produced elsewhere, there appears to be no sense of urgency for Pabst to begin brewing in Irwindale anytime soon. Pabst has until November 5th to complete the purchase of the Irwindale facility and we are all very hopeful that Union jobs in this brewery will be on the horizon sometime after that.
To our Coca-Cola members with their stand-alone contracts in Victorville and Ontario, your negotiations will also resume hopefully in the very near future, please watch your Union Bulletin Boards for further information.
Union membership meetings have also been on hold since the beginning of this pandemic, but we are hopeful that we will be able to have a meeting in June. The City of Pasadena has not relaxed their social distancing requirements as of the writing of this article, that is why we had to cancel the May meeting.
The world we live in has forever changed and I will be asking our members to remember this when they attend any type of large gathering including Union meetings. We will ask members to observe self-imposed social distancing and the use of hand sanitizer.
Congratulations to our recent retirees: Shelton Arnold (Coke Downey), Alicia Zuniga (Coke San Leandro),
Katya Asturi (AB Van Nuys) and Jaime Chua, Ruben Tapia, Lillian Carreon, Aurora Hernandez & Denise Trout all from MillerCoors.
Our deepest condolences to the families of: Billie Dunn (Retiree Anheuser-Busch Fairfield), Rafael De La Torre (Keurig Dr. Pepper/7UP).
We had some of our employers like Pepsi and 7up step right up to the plate and offer their employees “Hero Pay” incentives for leaving their families each day and continue to work, even with the fear of catching the virus and taking it home to their families and friends
We had other companies like MillerCoors, and Budweiser follow suit with incentive pay for their workers after the Union reminded and persuaded them it was the right thing to do for their workers. Then there were companies like Reyes Coca-Cola that finally agreed to give their workers incentive pay, but it was tied to attendance. If you missed a day of work, you forfeited the incentive for that week. That kind of incentive would encourage workers to come to work even if they were not feeling well! For the members working for Reyes owned beer distributors, they never saw any incentive pay, none. Reyes was also the first to pull their incentive pay several weeks ago and we already heard that most of our employers will follow suit at the end of May.
We were able to finish the Reyes Coca-Cola negotiations on March 16th. With over 1400 members represented by Locals 896, 848, 952 and 986 affected by these negotiations, the fact that we were able to get these negotiations done before mandatory social distancing went into effect was a victory in itself.
Due to social distancing, the ratification was done very differently by each local. Some Locals voted on premise and others had mail in ballots, but in the end, the contract was overwhelmingly ratified by all Locals. This contract saw some of the best wages and pension contributions for our Coca-Cola members had seen in many years, and the committee members from each local did an amazing job. Our committee members were called on often because of their subject matter expertise and were a major part of the reason we received such a good contract.
If we would’ve postponed these negotiations, the negotiating committee agreed that a post pandemic contract would not have been anywhere close to the one we negotiated. The pandemic hit everyone hard including the companies we represent. While most of our members continued to work, peoples buying patterns changed. Keg beer sales vanished completely, and syrup sales fell off dramatically because of the loss of on-premise sales, two-liter sales suffered too. Some of the companies got creative in keeping members working while others did not.
The current pandemic caused the postponement of the Pepsi Riverside negotiations. The members had already rejected the companies final offer and the company had agreed to return to the table, but social distancing protocols has placed the negotiations on hold. On the heels of the successful Reyes Coca-Cola contract negotiations, the company decided to close their Carson branch here in Southern California and Union City distribution center in Northern California. Both shops were Teamster facilities, and with their closures, the members went to work at other facilities. Unfortunately, with layoffs in the Los Angeles and Downey Coke shops, the closures led to 45 Carson workers being laid off at this time. There are some signs of production ramping up soon which should help all laid off workers get back to work.
The sad closure of the Irwindale MillerCoors Brewery continues to move forward. April and May saw the first round of permanent layoffs. June and July will see even more layoffs with the last of the workers getting laid off with the final closure of the Brewery, August 28th. On May 5th, we did hear some positive news when Pabst announced that they will be purchasing the Irwindale Brewery. While this is good news, the Pabst volume that our members working in Irwindale were producing, saw this volume transferred to the Teamster Brewery in Fort Worth Texas and to the non-union Coors Brewery in Golden Colorado. With Pabst products being produced elsewhere, there appears to be no sense of urgency for Pabst to begin brewing in Irwindale anytime soon. Pabst has until November 5th to complete the purchase of the Irwindale facility and we are all very hopeful that Union jobs in this brewery will be on the horizon sometime after that.
To our Coca-Cola members with their stand-alone contracts in Victorville and Ontario, your negotiations will also resume hopefully in the very near future, please watch your Union Bulletin Boards for further information.
Union membership meetings have also been on hold since the beginning of this pandemic, but we are hopeful that we will be able to have a meeting in June. The City of Pasadena has not relaxed their social distancing requirements as of the writing of this article, that is why we had to cancel the May meeting.
The world we live in has forever changed and I will be asking our members to remember this when they attend any type of large gathering including Union meetings. We will ask members to observe self-imposed social distancing and the use of hand sanitizer.
Congratulations to our recent retirees: Shelton Arnold (Coke Downey), Alicia Zuniga (Coke San Leandro),
Katya Asturi (AB Van Nuys) and Jaime Chua, Ruben Tapia, Lillian Carreon, Aurora Hernandez & Denise Trout all from MillerCoors.
Our deepest condolences to the families of: Billie Dunn (Retiree Anheuser-Busch Fairfield), Rafael De La Torre (Keurig Dr. Pepper/7UP).
