{"id":28319,"date":"2017-07-27T17:49:22","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T17:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/?p=28319"},"modified":"2020-09-08T17:25:55","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T17:25:55","slug":"lipton-tea-now-made-by-ufcw-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/lipton-tea-now-made-by-ufcw-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Lipton Tea now made by UFCW members"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On July 24, members of UFCW Local 400 who work at the nation\u2019s only Lipton Tea plant in Suffolk, Va., voted overwhelmingly to approve their first union contract. The Lipton plant in Suffolk has operated for more than 60 years and produces nearly all of the Lipton Tea sold in North America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The ratification represents the first time in the history of the plant when workers were given the opportunity to vote on the terms and conditions of their employment. The four-year contract includes significant improvements to working conditions and health care benefits, and places strict limits on when management can require employees to work overtime. The contract also provides workers with four days per year to opt out of mandatory overtime, in addition to two weekends off each month in which they can\u2019t be forced to work overtime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u201cNow we have Saturdays and Sundays off when they\u2019re scheduled off,\u201d worker Philip Surace said after Monday\u2019s meeting. \u201cThat\u2019s a big deal to us.\u201d The new contract will also save workers with families almost $4,000 per year on their health insurance. \u201cThat\u2019s money in your pocket every month,\u201d Surace said. Read more on the story in the Suffolk News Herald.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u201cIt was a long process, but we couldn\u2019t be happier with the outcome,\u201d said Anita Anderson, an operator at Lipton for 11 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u201cOur new health care plan is a huge weight off my shoulders. Personally, I take medication every day and I can\u2019t go without my health insurance. But I\u2019m also a dad, and saving $4,000 a year goes a long way for me and my family,\u201d said Terrell Owens, who has worked as an operating technician at Lipton for the past nine years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u201cFor the last 10 years, we saw so many of our benefits taken away,\u201d said Paul Garrison, a 16-year mechanic. \u201cBut now that we have a union, we\u2019re getting them back again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Philip Surace, a mechanic at Lipton, said his first experience with a union was when he called UFCW Local 400 last spring. \u201cI didn\u2019t know much about unions, but I knew something had to be done. Enough was enough. I was looking for help and the union sent people right away,\u201d he said. Philip quickly pulled together a meeting with his coworkers to learn about their rights to form a union. \u201cTwo months later, we had our union. I would encourage anyone who wants to make their workplace better to do the same thing we did.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u201cAs a longtime Virginia resident, I know all too well how decades of regressive legislation and outdated federal labor law have stacked the deck against workers, particularly in the South,\u201d said UFCW Local 400 President Mark Federci. \u201cThis unfortunate reality only makes me more proud of what the workers at Lipton have accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 24, members of UFCW Local 400 who work at the nation\u2019s only Lipton Tea plant in Suffolk, Va., voted overwhelmingly to approve their first union contract. The Lipton plant in Suffolk has operated for more than 60 years and produces nearly all of the Lipton Tea sold in North America. The ratification represents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33,48,19],"tags":[334],"class_list":["post-28319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-processing","category-organizing","category-unionmade","tag-ufcw-local-400"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLipton Tea now made by UFCW members - The United Food & Commercial Workers International Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/lipton-tea-now-made-by-ufcw-members\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lipton Tea now made by UFCW members - The United Food & Commercial Workers International Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On July 24, members of UFCW Local 400 who work at the nation\u2019s only Lipton Tea plant in Suffolk, Va., voted overwhelmingly to approve their first union contract. 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