ST. ALBANS CITY, Vt. — On Tuesday, Dairy Farmers of America workers showed up to strike for the sixth day on Federal Street and stood with picket signs, their backs facing the towering silos and white warehouses where they usually work.
The workers, part of the Vermont Teamsters Local 597 union, went on strike Thursday in a push for higher pay and what they consider to be a more fair overtime work policy. Employees are asking for an 8% increase in hourly wages. And after Lt. Governor John Rodgers visited the picket line Sunday, he said in an interview that he could be getting personally involved in negotiations.
Union members have been bargaining with the Kansas based dairy company since June, said Curtis Clough, the union’s organizer.
Then, earlier this month, the company hired a number of temporary employees in non-union roles, which the teamsters considered to be an act of bad faith, said Dustin Reed, a teamster on strike.
“We’re in a struggle against corporate America,” Reed said. And he feels like the little guy.
Dairy Farmers of America reported making over $108 million in net income in 2022, with $24.5 billion in net sales that year.
The dairy company did not respond to requests for an interview and instead emailed a statement that stated they’ve been actively negotiating with the union. “We are disappointed that the Teamsters walked away from that process and have initiated a strike at the St. Albans plant,” the company wrote.
The St. Albans facility receives milk shipments and processes that milk into cream, condensed skim milk and powdered skim milk. In addition to Ben and Jerry’s, the facility sells to Kate’s Butter and others.
Since the strike began, Clough said he estimates the facility is operating at about 10% capacity, with the temporary non-union employees filling some gaps in staffing while the strike continues.
Clough said that transport trucks have had to dump out thousands of gallons of milk because the facility doesn’t have the capacity to process the perishable product without the union employees.
‘They’re not asking for a lot’
Over the weekend, the strike drew the attention of Lt. Governor John Rodgers, who visited the picket line Sunday and posted a video on Facebook voicing support for their cause.
“If we’re going to maintain healthy agriculture, we’ve got to pay the workers good, we’ve got to pay the farmers good. Everybody needs to make a living,” Rodgers said in the video. He asked “everyone” to support the teamsters’ strike and to push the dairy company to show up to the bargaining table.
Teamsters also visited the Ben and Jerry’s Factory in Waterbury, Vt., on Sunday. Union members handed out flyers to customers and visitors to make them aware of the ice cream company’s ties to their employer, Clough said.
Reed, who lives in Enosburg, Vt., and grew up on a dairy farm, has worked at the facility for 22 years. He said that, recently, managers have been forcing senior employees to work significant overtime, which violates the company’s contract with the union. Clough said some company employees rejected those claims during meetings with the union.
Another worker on strike, Alan Boutin, doesn’t trust management. He believes he was wrongfully terminated last fall, but wasn’t re-hired until last week after the union negotiated with management for months. Throughout the process, managers made many promises they didn’t keep, he said.
“There’s a lot of b—s— going on here. It shouldn’t be that way,” he said.
Many workers on the picket line also said that dairy workers are notoriously underpaid. And Rodgers, who grew up on a dairy farm in the Kingdom, said he knows that to be true as well.
Conversations with management on Monday moved things in the right direction, but still aren’t meeting workers’ needs, Clough said. They hope to include Rodgers in the process to put more pressure on the company, he said.
In an interview, Rodgers said he offered to support the teamsters however they saw fit.
“They’re not asking for a lot,” Rodgers said. He said that a company as large and profitable as DFA should be able to pay their workers more. Rodgers is happy to sit down at the table with them.
“I want to see them back to work,” Rodgers said.
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