KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Decrying the “brutal demands” to force workers to work as many as seven days per week and 16 hours per day at the Graphic Packaging Corporation (GPC) plant in Kalamazoo, MI and the “anti-worker, union-busting practices of the Coors Family,” PACE International Union (PACE) was joined today by the AFL-CIO in announcing a nationwide boycott against GPC and consumer products for whom GPC provides packaging. Included among manufacturers whose products are contained in GPC packaging are Coors Brewing Company, General Mills, Quaker Products and Kraft Foods.
GPC, headquartered in Golden, CO, is the largest folding carton manufacturer in the United States, with one mill and 17 plants throughout the country. The corporation is publicly traded and owned and controlled by the Coors Family through family trusts. On July 27, 2002, after a dispute primarily over mandatory overtime, holiday work requirements and pensions, GPC imposed a lockout on 429 members of PACE (Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers). At the time of the lockout, GPC was demanding that workers could be required to work, if needed, all scheduled days off, all Saturdays, Sundays and holidays – even Christmas – as well as a lower pension for younger workers. GPC later relented on its demand for Christmas work after Jeffrey Coors, GPC Chief Executive Officer, was challenged about this demand on religious grounds.
At a news conference held today in Kalamazoo, AFL-CIO and PACE officials and workers announced plans for the boycott and identified specific products packaged by GPC, which will be included in the boycott. Also participating in the news conference were representatives of the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) which will be active in the boycott nationwide.
PACE officials indicated the primary target would be the Coors Brewing Company because the manufacturer is controlled by the Coors Family. Emphasizing that the GPC boycott is an official boycott of the AFL-CIO and will be honored by its 13 million members, Mark Gaffney, AFL-CIO Michigan State President, stressed:
“This lockout of PACE members is an example of union busting and represents anti-worker and anti- family activity by an out-of-town corporation. We must send a clear message to Graphic Packaging Corporation and Coors Brewing that the workers and citizens of Michigan and across this country find this type of activity to be deplorable and totally unconscionable. ”
Speaking on behalf of PACE, Vice President Bill Gibbons said the union
has “gone the extra mile” to try and negotiate with the GPC and the Coors Family to end the nearly six month lockout. He said the union and workers hold the Coors Family directly responsible for the lockout and view their actions as a return to their “virulent union busting activities of the 1970s and
1980s.” He commented:
“The Graphic Packaging workers in Kalamazoo are being punished by Coors solely because they have engaged in their legal right of collective bargaining and rejected the company s unreasonable demands to work up to16 hours a day, seven days a week, all days off and every holiday except Christmas. The conduct by Coors against these workers is a vicious attack because they have rejected sweatshop employment conditions. This conduct is socially reprehensible and could set an anti-worker, anti-family precedent.
The hardship of the lockout on the workers and their families “particularly during the recently concluded holiday season” was stressed by James Thomas, a member of PACE who spoke at the news conference on behalf of the locked out workers, many of whom were in attendance. He remarked: “After working at this facility for more than 20 years, I find it impossible to understand why Coors would inflict this kind of pain and suffering on me, my family and co-workers for simply saying ‘no’ to their unreasonable demand to work more hours, thus eliminating valuable time we have to spend with our family and churches. ”
Emphasizing that PACE is prepared to lead the boycott against all manufacturers who use GPC packaging materials for their products, Gibbons reported the boycott will start with Coors Beer as well as those products of General Mills, Kraft Foods and Quaker Products that are packaged at GPC’s Kalamazoo plant. Coors Beer products will initially get the emphasis he pointed out because the union believes the Coors Family wants its members to work until “they drop and Coors would like to return to the days before unions existed to protect workers from this kind of abusive treatment.”
General Mills cereal products which will be targeted include: Wheaties, Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Cocoa Crisp, Total, Total Raisin Bran, Golden Grahams and Wheat, Rice and Corn Chex. Products of Quaker Products to be targeted by the boycott are all flavors of Rice-a-Roni and Pasta-Roni.
The Oscar Meyer brands of Kraft Products will be specifically targeted. Gibbons emphasized that letters have already been sent to General Mills, Kraft Foods and Quaker Products requesting they cease doing business with GPC.
“It would be a shame to see their brand names and the reputations of their products be stained by the unfair labor practices of the Coors Family,” he stressed.
Gibbons reported that the plan for the boycott has three phases. PACE will work with AFL-CIO state and local organizations and union affiliates to educate union workers, encourage them not to drink Coors beer or buy the other targeted products and seek to generate articles in union publications about the boycott. The second phase will involve working with USAS to make a boycott of Coors Beer a top priority on college campuses for students 21 years or older. Finally, in respect to Coors Beer, Gibbons said PACE is developing a “counter-marketing plan” to compete directly with Coors Beer in key market places and to educate the public about the anti-labor practices of GPC’s CEO Jeffrey Coors and the Coors Family and to encourage them not to drink Coors Beer. The plan includes the use of radio and television advertisements.
Gibbons reported a website www.Coors-abuse.org