De Pere, WI – Members of Teamsters Local 662 at New Dairy Select Milk, a subsidiary of Borden Dairy, formerly known as Morning Glory, have been on strike for four weeks over the company’s refusal to negotiate a fair deal on workers’ healthcare coverage.

Local 662 is pushing to join a Teamsters healthcare plan, which would offer better coverage at a lower rate for both the workers and the company. But Borden Dairy refuses to negotiate, instead demanding that the workers sign up for the company policy, which is much more expensive and restrictive.

According to Tom Strickland, Local 662 secretary treasurer, the company has refused to negotiate for over seven weeks, which led to the workers finally going on strike. “They’ll send anyone to the negotiating table but themselves.”

Strickland continued, “They hired a private security company, a union busting firm, and a temp worker agency to replace us. They could have had this resolved a long time ago for a lot less money. This is obviously just a union busting attempt.”

Borden Dairy went from 110 employees to just 35 last July, when the plant eliminated its milk-bottling lines and switched to exclusively making sour cream. The sour cream supplies many big restaurants such as Taco Bell.

Strickland, states, “We’ll be out here for as long as it takes. It’s time for regular, working Americans to stand up.”

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