Post by Modesto Anarcho on Sept 18, 2007 14:14:33 GMT -5
By Joe Goldeen
Record Staff Writer
September 18, 2007 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - Two hundred workers at Martin-Brower, the Stockton distribution center that delivers food and supplies to all McDonald's and Chipotle restaurants throughout Northern California and northern Nevada, went on strike Monday morning.
It appeared late Monday that the strike would continue today, directly affecting restaurant inventories. However, a Martin-Brower spokeswoman said the company is confident the restaurants will not be affected.
"At 5 a.m. this morning, we shut the whole plant down. Nothing coming in, nothing going out," Teamsters Local 439 chief Sam Rosas said Monday.
ABOUT MARTIN-BROWER
Stockton's Martin-Brower distribution center is one of 15 nationwide. The international company has been providing distribution services for McDonald's since 1956. It serves 9,000 restaurants in the United States, Canada and Latin America. It joined Reyes Holdings in 1998.
The plant provides food and supplies for about 550 McDonald's and 37 Chipotle restaurants. A typical McDonald's gets two deliveries a week; some require three deliveries, according to truck drivers who make those deliveries.
The plant dispatches 900 to 1,100 truckloads a week of frozen hamburger patties and french fries, fresh buns and produce, drink cups and other supplies to McDonald's restaurants from Porterville to the Oregon border and from San Francisco to Lovelock, Nev. McDonald's refers to it as its Pacific Sierra Region, according to a company spokeswoman in Sacramento.
Shelly King, an outside media representative for McDonald's, said affected restaurants were holding their own Monday with no problems.
"So far, the restaurants that didn't receive deliveries today are expecting it tomorrow, and they're fine," King said Monday. She did not know how many restaurants missed their deliveries, and she did not want to speculate on whether there might be food shortages today.
Workers at the sprawling distribution center at 4704 Fite Court, in southeast Stockton's Arch Road Business Park - including truck drivers, office clerks, maintenance personnel and warehouse workers - have been working without a Teamsters contract since Sept. 1, when their previous three-year contract expired.
Their primary concerns revolve around health care and safety issues.
They claim management at Martin-Brower has refused to negotiate in good faith and has made unreasonable production demands on workers, putting their safety on the job at risk.
The Teamsters union members, who average $21.30 an hour, want wages to keep pace with inflation. But more important, they don't want to pay several hundred dollars a month more for health insurance, and they want continued 24-hour access to urgent care for on-the-job injuries, according to workers and the union.
The plant is open around the clock, but workers who are injured at night must wait until morning to seek care from the company's newly designated provider, according to the union.
"They want us to sacrifice safety for production," said Gary Siegfried, a Martin-Brower truck driver for the past six years who was on the picket line Monday.
Warehouseman Allen Lowen, with 25 years at the company, said relations between workers and management are "the worst it's ever been. We have no access to management. The company says we're overpaid for the area."
Lowen regretted having to picket, calling it "a sad day for many of us. It's not something any of us want, but they have a human-resource person who just feels he's above us."
That has made for some tough negotiations, union representatives say.
"We have a contract we're trying to bargain, but we're not going to get a contract with these guys ignoring us," Teamsters business agent Ed Speckman said. "It's getting pretty intense at the table."
The union also said the company has threatened to shut down the Stockton plant and not allow workers to follow their jobs unless the union agrees to its terms.
"Threatening to move is not true. It's simply not true," Martin-Brower corporate spokeswoman Molly Reilly said from Rosemont, Ill., where parent company Reyes Holdings LLC is headquartered.
Reilly said the company preferred not to negotiate through the media and had little more to say.
In a prepared statement, Stockton general manager Mark Peterson said: "We value our employees and the contributions they make to our business, and we are working with them to resolve any outstanding issues. This has nothing to do with our customers or the companies we serve, and we are confident in our ability to resolve any outstanding issues and come to an agreement in the very near future."
In response to whether McDonald's or Chipotle restaurants would start running out of food beginning today if the strike continued, Reilly said, "We feel confident this will not impact our customers."
The Teamsters union was unaware of any backup plan for supplying the restaurants should the strike continue.
A woman identifying herself as the manager of the Stockton Chipotle restaurant referred inquiries to corporate headquarters. No representative of Denver-based Chipotle could be reached for comment Monday.
Monday's picket line remained relatively calm, but Stockton police were called out for at least one incident. An independent truck from Above the Line Transport of Stockton left the plant with its back trailer door open, allowing about two dozen empty bread trays to fall onto Fite Court, blocking the street as the truck drove away.
The striking Teamsters did not volunteer to pick up the trays. That resulted in five large trucks backing up for 45 minutes until police arrived to clear the street.
Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com.
Record Staff Writer
September 18, 2007 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - Two hundred workers at Martin-Brower, the Stockton distribution center that delivers food and supplies to all McDonald's and Chipotle restaurants throughout Northern California and northern Nevada, went on strike Monday morning.
It appeared late Monday that the strike would continue today, directly affecting restaurant inventories. However, a Martin-Brower spokeswoman said the company is confident the restaurants will not be affected.
"At 5 a.m. this morning, we shut the whole plant down. Nothing coming in, nothing going out," Teamsters Local 439 chief Sam Rosas said Monday.
ABOUT MARTIN-BROWER
Stockton's Martin-Brower distribution center is one of 15 nationwide. The international company has been providing distribution services for McDonald's since 1956. It serves 9,000 restaurants in the United States, Canada and Latin America. It joined Reyes Holdings in 1998.
The plant provides food and supplies for about 550 McDonald's and 37 Chipotle restaurants. A typical McDonald's gets two deliveries a week; some require three deliveries, according to truck drivers who make those deliveries.
The plant dispatches 900 to 1,100 truckloads a week of frozen hamburger patties and french fries, fresh buns and produce, drink cups and other supplies to McDonald's restaurants from Porterville to the Oregon border and from San Francisco to Lovelock, Nev. McDonald's refers to it as its Pacific Sierra Region, according to a company spokeswoman in Sacramento.
Shelly King, an outside media representative for McDonald's, said affected restaurants were holding their own Monday with no problems.
"So far, the restaurants that didn't receive deliveries today are expecting it tomorrow, and they're fine," King said Monday. She did not know how many restaurants missed their deliveries, and she did not want to speculate on whether there might be food shortages today.
Workers at the sprawling distribution center at 4704 Fite Court, in southeast Stockton's Arch Road Business Park - including truck drivers, office clerks, maintenance personnel and warehouse workers - have been working without a Teamsters contract since Sept. 1, when their previous three-year contract expired.
Their primary concerns revolve around health care and safety issues.
They claim management at Martin-Brower has refused to negotiate in good faith and has made unreasonable production demands on workers, putting their safety on the job at risk.
The Teamsters union members, who average $21.30 an hour, want wages to keep pace with inflation. But more important, they don't want to pay several hundred dollars a month more for health insurance, and they want continued 24-hour access to urgent care for on-the-job injuries, according to workers and the union.
The plant is open around the clock, but workers who are injured at night must wait until morning to seek care from the company's newly designated provider, according to the union.
"They want us to sacrifice safety for production," said Gary Siegfried, a Martin-Brower truck driver for the past six years who was on the picket line Monday.
Warehouseman Allen Lowen, with 25 years at the company, said relations between workers and management are "the worst it's ever been. We have no access to management. The company says we're overpaid for the area."
Lowen regretted having to picket, calling it "a sad day for many of us. It's not something any of us want, but they have a human-resource person who just feels he's above us."
That has made for some tough negotiations, union representatives say.
"We have a contract we're trying to bargain, but we're not going to get a contract with these guys ignoring us," Teamsters business agent Ed Speckman said. "It's getting pretty intense at the table."
The union also said the company has threatened to shut down the Stockton plant and not allow workers to follow their jobs unless the union agrees to its terms.
"Threatening to move is not true. It's simply not true," Martin-Brower corporate spokeswoman Molly Reilly said from Rosemont, Ill., where parent company Reyes Holdings LLC is headquartered.
Reilly said the company preferred not to negotiate through the media and had little more to say.
In a prepared statement, Stockton general manager Mark Peterson said: "We value our employees and the contributions they make to our business, and we are working with them to resolve any outstanding issues. This has nothing to do with our customers or the companies we serve, and we are confident in our ability to resolve any outstanding issues and come to an agreement in the very near future."
In response to whether McDonald's or Chipotle restaurants would start running out of food beginning today if the strike continued, Reilly said, "We feel confident this will not impact our customers."
The Teamsters union was unaware of any backup plan for supplying the restaurants should the strike continue.
A woman identifying herself as the manager of the Stockton Chipotle restaurant referred inquiries to corporate headquarters. No representative of Denver-based Chipotle could be reached for comment Monday.
Monday's picket line remained relatively calm, but Stockton police were called out for at least one incident. An independent truck from Above the Line Transport of Stockton left the plant with its back trailer door open, allowing about two dozen empty bread trays to fall onto Fite Court, blocking the street as the truck drove away.
The striking Teamsters did not volunteer to pick up the trays. That resulted in five large trucks backing up for 45 minutes until police arrived to clear the street.
Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com.