Bakers union settles contract with Pearson Candy

Workers at the Pearson Candy Company plant in Saint Paul weren’t going to stand for management’s proposal to strip them of overtime pay, impose 12-hour shifts, and provide only token pay raises.

On Nov. 24, 130 of the 155 workers participated in a strike authorization vote — and “it was a solid 100 percent” to authorize a strike, reported Ron Mohrland, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 22.

“The company was aware of that,” Mohrland said. “We had them convinced we would shut the plant down.”

The company came back with a new offer. “The company removed every piece of offensive language,” Mohrland said. “It went back to current language.”

Pearson offered a three-year agreement “superior to the last two contracts,” Mohrland said. For the first time, the company offered a matching 401(k) contribution. The company offered a 90-cent-per-hour wage increase over the life of the contract. And they offered a $500 signing bonus.

“The reason this happened was the fact that the membership stood together in solidarity,” Mohrland said. “That’s what it takes to get a progressive contract. That’s what it takes and that’s what we did.”

On Dec. 4, members voted over a seven-hour period at the 7th Street Social Club next door to the Pearson plant.

“We ratified the contract,” said Debra Mickelson, Cottage Grove, an 11-year Pearson worker and Local 22 steward on the day shift.

“People were just not happy with what the company was first offering,” she said. With the strike authorization vote, they wanted to send a message that they weren’t happy.”

Workers and supporters also had demonstrated outside the company’s Halloween Party for the public.

“We were willing to stand up for ourselves and fight for what we thought we deserved,” Mickelson said, “and the company got the message.”