Strike Plans Brewing at Dunkin' Donuts as Distributor Stalls Negotiations

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International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Jun 29, 2010, 02:59 ET

Teamsters Critical to Company's Supply Distribution System

BOSTON, June 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dunkin' Donuts' distributor is trying to break the Teamsters through bad faith negotiations, and strike preparations are under way, Teamsters Local 25 President Sean M. O'Brien said today.

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Local 25 is making strike preparations that would shut down Dunkin' Donuts' operations throughout the Northeast. The company's largest distributor, Dunkin' Donuts Northeast DCP, continued to stall over reaching a contract agreement with more than 200 drivers and helpers.

"We've been in talks for almost a year and the company refuses to talk about the basic issues of affordable health care and Union security," O'Brien said. "Our members are fed up. America is going to be running on fumes, not Dunkin' Donuts."

The Teamsters are preparing picket signs and finalizing plans for a national boycott of Dunkin' Donuts to protest DCP's stall tactics. The 200 Teamster drivers and helpers are critical to the company's supply distribution system.

O'Brien has held 22 bargaining sessions with the company since October 2009, yet DCP refuses to negotiate affordable health care and Union security. Instead, DCP hired a union-busting firm and is delaying negotiations in order to pursue a union decertification vote. Local 25 attempted to bargain most of the day yesterday until an agreement was reached, but the company refused.

"Hardworking men and women will get their coffee elsewhere once they realize Dunkin' Donuts is refusing to treat drivers and helpers with basic decency and fairness," O'Brien said. "The company is trying to undermine workers' rights recognized by federal law since the 1930s, and we won't stand for it."

Bellingham-based Dunkin' Donuts Northeast DCP is a cooperative owned by regional franchisees. The company delivers products and ingredients to Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins stores throughout New England.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million men and women, most of whom drink coffee, in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters