After nearly two weeks of picketing, unionized workers at the Dairy Farmers of America plant in St. Albans City came to a new contract agreement with their employer Tuesday. The length of their strike, and difficulties with negotiations, shed light on how federal cuts may result in drawn out labor negotiations.
Members of the Teamsters Local 597 union left their work posts and took to the picket line Sept. 25 after attempting to negotiate with the dairy giant since June. Their cause drew the support of Lt. Gov. John Rodgers, who visited the picket line and offered to personally get involved in negotiations.
Before the strike headed into its second week, union organizer Curtis Clough estimated the facility was running at about 10% capacity. He also said transport trucks were dumping thousands of gallons of milk because the facility couldn’t accept the product.
After Rodgers expressed support for the teamsters and the facility went shorthanded for almost two full weeks, the dairy company leveled with the union.
“This new contract supports our employees and their families with competitive wages and benefits,” the company wrote in a statement Tuesday.
Employees will return to work, the company said in its statement. Clough sees the agreement as a win.
“I really view it as a very solid contract full of benefits and language enhancements for the members,” he said.
Under the new contract, employees will see a 14.5% increase in wages within the next 22 months and some will see higher increases in pay depending on seniority. The new contract also prevents management from forcing overtime on employees and requires the employer to contribute more toward workers’ health care and pension plans.
“One of the big sticking points in negotiations was always the 12-hour days in the lab,” Clough said. Now those are no more.
Though both sides reached a resolution, Clough said it’s likely the strike would have been completely averted if federal labor mediators were involved.
In the union’s past negotiations with the dairy company, a federal mediator from Albany or Boston would get involved in the conversation and help everyone come to an agreement, Clough said. In three different instances, a strike was averted because mediators helped both sides find common ground, he said.
But those mediators were fired this spring in a round of cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
DOGE, notorious for exaggerating its savings, slashed positions across the Federal Labor Mediation and Conciliation Service earlier this year. Those cuts are estimated to make up 0.0014% of the federal budget, according to The Guardian.
Teamsters felt the effects.
“This time, with the mediators being eliminated as part of the DOGE cuts, that option (of mediation) wasn’t there,” Clough said.
Even though the picket carried on for longer, teamsters held out.
“They stood up to a big titan and won,” Clough said.
