Votes Enable DFA & Prairie Farms to Purchase
Most Dean Foods Assets
The long-troubled and poorly-managed Dean Foods filed for bankruptcy in early November 2019, jeopardizing almost five thousand Teamster jobs at the many regional dairies it had purchased over the years. Two major companies, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and Prairie Farms (PF), stepped forward to bid on large portions of the failing Dean production and distribution facilities. As a condition of the purchase, those companies required some modifications to the existing collective bargaining agreements which were approved by Teamster members in a vote count today. The membership approvals satisfy one condition of the sales transactions scheduled to be finalized by May 1, 2020 at the latest.
Teamsters covered by the DFA group of assets total 3,330 and voted 82 percent to approve. Teamsters covered by the PF group of assets total 536 and voted by 96 percent to approve.
The approved agreements maintain the current wage structure while extending the local agreement by two years. Additionally, both agreements maintain existing employee health care plans if they are in a Teamster plan, or mirror the employees’ current Dean health care plan.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hard-working men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
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