On May 17, RWDSU local 835 members at the Holsum Bakery Production and Maintenance Unit voted to ratify a new three-year contract. The workers, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, will see wage increases and increases in the company’s weekly contributions to the employee pension plan.

The health plan will be protected over the life of the agreement, and uniform reimbursement, night shift bonus, tool replacement allowance, and the weekly sickness and accident benefits will all increase.

RWDSU activists spread the word about Mott's Dr. Pepper Snapple's attacks on the Williamson, New York, workers. 

RWDSU Local 108 members employed at the Andrew Mark leather goods distribution center in Secaucus, New Jersey, ratified a new three-year contract with numerous improvements. In addition to wage increases, the workers there won three new paid holidays, including Presidents’ Day, the day after Thanksgiving, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The contract also keeps medical costs in check.

RWDSU Local 220 member Charles Mattice is on strike against Mott's in Williamson, New York. The singer/songwriter just posted "Everything is Fine on the Picket Line," his new song about the solidarity of the union members on the picket line. Watch and listen here.

In a letter to Dr. Pepper/Snapple CEO Larry Young, New York Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand reminds the executive of the costs being incurred by the strike at the Mott's facility in Williamson, New York, and urges the company to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a contract with the RWDSU Local 220 members there in good faith.

"I ask you and Dr. Pepper Snapple group to do whatever possible to protect good paying jobs and help support the local economy here in New York State," Gillibrand writes.

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