BREAKING NEWS COCA COLA TERMINATES CONTRACT WITH BIG GEYSER Works with Teamsters Local 812 to put Glaceau Products, Vitamin Water, Smart Water and others on all New York & Long Island 812 Coca Cola Trucks. The end is near for Big Geyser’s President CEO Louis Hershkowitz and COO Jerry Raada. The two are desperately seeking how to play damage control with their distributors and employees after Coca Cola sent a Happy New Years “Donald Trump letter on New Years Eve to Big Geyser stating “YOU ARE FIRED” Coca Cola representatives were having discussions with John Ulrich, Vice President of Teamsters Local 812 for numerous months following a Local 812 Organizing Campaign in 2013 to terminate the contract and put all the products on 812 Teamster trucks throughout New York, Long Island and surrounding areas. According to Ulrich, the Vitamin Water issue has been a sore spot for Local 812 for years with New York being one of only two locations that did not put it in Coca Cola Distribution centers across the county. Ulrich stated that it was a black eye on the former President of Local 812 and his assistant for not taking a hard stand and letting it continue to be delivered by Big Geyser. It was not until that President was gone and the new leadership which included the current board did 812 aggressively pursue the product. Vice President Ulrich said “This is a great day for Teamsters Local 812 and its membership. We are excited and we are determined. It is a long time coming. A lot of people doubted us and if it would happen, but look at us now. Never doubt us. Ulrich said, he informed Coke several months ago that 812 was going back to organize Big Geyser and would not stop until it became a Local 812 represented company or is out of business. After that the two sides really worked together to see how it could happen. Teamsters Local 812 represents over 4000 workers in the Soft Drink & Brewery Industry throughout the 5 Boroughs, Long Island, Upstate New York to Albany, and parts of both New Jersey & Connecticut. Teamsters Local 812 is the largest beverage industry union in the United States, and is considered the union that sets the standard for all beverage unions representing products like Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Budweiser, Miller, Snapple and much more. Big Geyser, with a long history of involvement or links with organized crime (below) in the New York area is now faced with an “end of the road situation as they just lost 60% of their volume with the losses of Vitamin Water and Smart Water. villagevoice/2008-05-27/news/a-slice-of-mafia-with-your-sparkling-water/ nytimes/2006/09/23/nyregion/23gotti.html?_r=0 huffingtonpost/jerry-capeci/feds-to-jackie-nose-heres_b_658510.html “They just lost half their truck volume said one beverage insider. They do not have the type of dominant products to sustain that type of volume loss. Lets be serious. Hal’s Seltzer is NOT going to make up for Vitamin Water PERIOD! “The writing is on the wall for us said a Big Geyser Distributor in Manhattan, We paid 6-1,7-1 or 350 to 500 thousand dollars for these routes and I have nothing now. We know Louis is going to try and screw us with the money he is going to receive from Coke. We are dead now. I can not even sell my route and get my money back. No one can help us now” Big Geyser can try and put any spin they want on it. No one in their right minds would ever believe that you just give up 50% of you business. Worse is you insult and bite the hand that feeds you (Coke) by saying Vitamin Water is now a dog? That really did not go over well with Coca Cola. The only reason Vitamin Water sales are down is because of Big Geyser. They worried more about V-8 and forgot their bread and butter” said President of Local 812 Ed Weber. President Weber also stated that the Teamster office phones are ringing off the hook from Big Geyser Distributors or owner operators afraid of what is going to happen next and if they can join Local 812 in an effort not to lose the brand or their routes. Another Big Geyser distributor we interviewed said that Most of these distributors pay day laborers or illegals off the street and pay them $30-40 a day to deliver as a helper on the truck. This is what enables Big Geyser to sell at a lower cost. In the end, we do not pay taxes on those day workers or report them and of course they pay no taxes either.” Recording Secretary John Visconti stated, “The Pepsi Distributors in NYC are in Local 812. They have to be a member and their drivers have to be 812 members as well. What Big Geyser is doing OR allowing to go on is not ethically right. The mayor has put in rules for sick days and other important worker related necessities and these Big Geyser Owner Operators just ignore and cheat the system. How can you expect companies like Coke, Pepsi, Anheuser Busch that run a legal corporate responsibly system, that does the right thing for its employees and follows the law to be able to compete against these tax cheating, law breaking companies like the Big Geyser Distributors? It is not right. And we will expose them. A FORMER Brentwood Big Geyser driver who was wrongly fired during the Big Geyser campaign and now works for Coke and a Local 812 member said “Now you see that the organizing campaign last year was a HUGE success AND A HUGE VICTORY. It was never about winning the election, it was about exposing Big Geyser for what they are. Local 812 was the best thing that happened to me and I am so much better off with a much better job. Big Geyser hired armed guards, they threatened people, they bribed people. Herskowitz and Reda promised and swore they would never lose Vitamin Water. Well I guess they lied to all their people again. Thats all they know how to do is lie to the people, threaten them and screw them in the end” Secretary Treasurer Joe Vitta. When we interviewed some of Big Geysers competitors most had the same response and are genuinely happy with their relationships with 812. “Local 812 is keeping us in the game. The union has showed if you expose these companies for what they are then their suppliers will look also. I do not think anyone WANTS to be involved in a RICO case these days. And it seems for the first time in a long time that Local 812 is fighting back. We are happy about it, 812 represented companies can do a much better job delivering these new products anyway. said a Rival Company President represented by Local 812 Monster will be the next to leave Geyser, Monster is going in our upstate Coca Cola shops in New Windsor & Elmsford on March 1st. it is being taken out of non union mom and pop distributors up there so it is going to happen down here as well said Business Agent Larry Debellis Teamsters Local 812 Vice President John Ulrich interrupted and said defiantly We will not stop, any company that is having their products delivered by Geyser or for that fact any other company that tran ships, or uses scabs to try and hurt our members and companies will lose business. We will leaflet and do community boycotts. We will put the rat in front of stores that take those deliveries. See how much money that store saves then. These products will be put on a list of boycotted products until they are all on Local 812 trucks and given to the companies that treat their employees the right way. Ulrich continued - I see positive things coming now with Cola Cola, They have a plan and want Teamsters Local 812 to be part of it. These products being moved onto our trucks will effectively add hundreds of new union jobs with a good company. That is the sign of a true partnership. My talks with Coke ended with their President & Vice President saying to me its simple. JOHN, WE WIN TOGETHER OR WE DIE TOGETHER. To me, that was a defining moment in a long standing relationship. cont. We both have to take a position to ensure that the company is successful in order for our members to be successful. Otherwise, we could eventually meet the same fate as Hostess. No one wants that. So, my answer to them was I hate losing so there is no doubt we will win together Over the course of 3 years this is the second time that Coca Cola has closed a non union facility and moved it into an 812 represented facility. The first was Eastern Container with blow mold machines, the second is Big Geyser and Vitamin water. Vice President Ulrich concluded - People too often hear negative comments about Coke but I will tell you at the end of the day this company has always provided good union jobs in New York that includes their support of full union medical, a great union pension, the top pay and in the industry, as well as much more. how many out there can say that in these times. There is a lot of loyalty to our companies by 812 members and when we need to step up we do. By Coca Cola making this move we will partner together for the future. To make it work in order to get every last case on an 812 truck, whether its these non union trans shippers, or Vitamin Water, Monster, Honest Tea, Simply Orange and whatever else. They will have no choice because we will be relentless in the fight to protect our good companies and these jobs. But most of all, we will protect our members, their families and their way of life. In the end, it looks like the beverage world is totally restructuring in New York. This recent change as well as last years Pepsi New York purchase of Long Island Pepsi, the recent merger of Phoenix Beverages & Manhattan Beer is just the beginning. InBev reported that is was moving their marketing headquarters to New York City. Something seems to be brewing in New York and it certainly is not coffee. Or is it?
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 04:15:33 +0000
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