We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the 750 Basic Vegetable Products employees in King City, members of Teamsters Local 890 of Salinas, who have been on strike since July 7, 1999. When the workers struck, Basic was demanding a three-year wage freeze, the contracting out of 30 jobs, and a work-week reduction to 37 hours for half of the work force.
We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the 750 Basic Vegetable Products employees in King City, members of Teamsters Local 890 of Salinas, who have been on strike since July 7, 1999. When the workers struck, Basic was demanding a three-year wage freeze, the contracting out of 30 jobs, and a work-week reduction to 37 hours for half of the work force.
In recent months, Basic has increased their attempts to intimidate the strikers. But this has not dampened the strikers’ resolve. Not one striker has crossed the picket line. One month into the strike, Basic put out a new offer, which included all of the earlier takeaways, plus new rules to make it easier for supervisors to do bargaining unit work, to reduce overtime payments, to make it easier to contract out work, a two-tier wage scale which would pay new hires up to $3.50 less per hour without ever giving them a chance to catch up, a $140 co-payment on health insurance for all new hires, elimination of the pension (to be replaced with a 401K plan at one-third the company contribution level), and a demand that workers all pay Basic $20 per month until Basic has recovered all strike-related losses. We call on all unionists and activists to help collect food or contributions for food for the strikers, and to get the word out about this important struggle. You can contact Teamsters Local 890, at 207 N. Sanborn Rd. / Salinas, CA. 93905. / Tel. (831)424-5743 / Fax (831)424-2091.
Author: Teamsters Local 890
News Service: OWC CAMPAIGN NEWS
Leave a Reply