Defections Undermine Dairy Strike More Broadview Workers Cross Union Picket Lines

Nearly half the 47 Teamsters Union members striking Broadview Dairy have crossed the picket line, retired or found new jobs.

Dick Solberg, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local No. 582, said Wednesday that 14 union workers have returned to the milk bottling plant. Five others have retired or landed new jobs.

Art Coffey, chief operating officer for Broadview owner, Goodale & Barbieri Cos. of Spokane, said he counts 18 Teamsters who have crossed the picket line. G&B has hired another 16 people as permanent replacement workers at Broadview, which employs a total of 86 people.

“A lot of people are happy with the situation,” Coffey said, adding that G&B was not trying to break the union. “But we’ve got a business to run; we’ve got to move on.”

The defections are a blow to the union, which walked out Nov. 1 after G&B demanded pay cuts and elimination of pension fund contributions. But Solberg said the remaining pickets have vowed to continue.

“To put it bluntly, there were some people who didn’t understand the concept of teamwork, unity and what a union is all about,” he said.

The Teamsters on Nov. 15 rejected a contract that G&B said was necessary to curtail losses at the 85-year-old downtown factory. G&B said the package was worth $19.60 an hour.

Five days later, G&B implemented the plan for Broadview replacement workers and returning Teamsters who bottle, package and distribute dairy products.

The package on average reduced wages by 67 cents an hour, from $15.50 to $14.83. It dropped G&B’s $2 per hour pension contribution, but created a 401(k) plan with partial matching funds. It increased employees’ share of contributions to medical benefits by 65 cents an hour, but guaranteed a 25-cent-per-hour bonus for every $100,000 net profit at the dairy.

The union has countered with an offer to take a $2.37 per hour pay cut if G&B would continue to fully fund the pension and medical plan.

, DataTimes