Fighting for respect at American Licorice
By
UNION CITY, Calif.--About 180 workers from Baker's Union Local 125 hit the picket line December 5 after a strike vote carried by an overwhelming majority at American Licorice.
The main issue is the company's proposed changes to the workers' health care benefits and retirement plan. American Licorice is poised to make millions from these changes, but workers aren't prepared to accept this bitter pill.
The company is a family-owned business with nonunion factories in Illinois and Oregon. As the only remaining unionized plant, some felt that the company's real aim was to get rid of the union. "It's about respect," said Evangelina Reynosa, one of the strikers. "They want to take away our health care, and the plan is not good for us. The plan they are offering is too expensive. We don't want to lose our benefits. We don't want to lose our union!"
Strong picket lines have enjoyed practically 100 percent participation, and union truckers have shown solidarity by refusing to cross the picket line to make deliveries. Together, this has sustained the strikers' confidence.
The company has reportedly been hiring mainly Latino day laborers from the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart to scab on the strike by a workforce that is nearly 90 percent Latino. But this has not broken the spirit of the strikers.
Over the course of 20 years, the company has updated its machines while reducing the number of workers from 500 to less than 200. The machines, which cost more than $9 million, were bought on the backs of their own workers.
"This is a good family company to work for," said Lambert Tom, a maintenance mechanic. "We're out here to protect our health care and the health care of our retirees, but they're acting like a corporation, and that is what this is--corporate greed."
There are tentative plans for a rally to bring together unions to raise awareness about attacks on workers throughout the area. And if the constant honking of horns in support of the picket line is any indication of solidarity from the community, American Licorice is in for a fight.
