Bitter Juice at Sun-Rype?

A tough strike at Kelowna's Sun-Rype juice plant is over but deep scars remain, say current and former workers. Some claim the company is taking reprisals against union leaders.

Sun-Rype management would not comment on the mood at the plant, which recently came under the control of B.C. billionaire Jimmy Pattison after a year when profits slumped. But one Teamsters official likened the atmosphere to "a prison."

Tense line

For 16 weeks this winter Teamsters at the Sun-Rype fruit products plant walked a picket line in freezing Interior weather. The dispute was bitter, marked by scuffles and close brushes with injury as non-union drivers of semi-trailers careened through the picket line. Security guards tore down tarps erected to give striking workers cold weather shelter.

The workers at the 62-year-old fruit juice and products plant, originally a growers' co-op and, since 1996, a publicly traded company, voted on Feb. 23 by a 77 per cent margin to accept a contract hammered out with the help of Vancouver-based private mediator John Sanderson. The new four-year contract, retroactive to August 2006, called for a 12 per cent raise in wages over its term.

Now, returned workers, and some who refused to return after the settlement, claim that the labour relations atmosphere at Sun-Rype has become poisonous, with managers harassing and intimidating union stewards and other activists.

'Harassment' alleged

"It's just nasty all the way at Sun-Rype," said former employee and job steward Charles Parkhurst. "I went back to work but they forced me out with their intimidation and harassment. One of my friends didn't even bother to go back. He told me 'I'm not going back for a fricking heart attack.'"

Parkhurst claimed that he and other job stewards were intrusively watched and followed by foremen during their shifts. He said low seniority workers weren't getting full weeks of work, and as result at least one has to supplement his income with trips to a food bank.

"One woman I know has only got five shifts since the new contract was signed. Five shifts a month isn't 'back to work,'" he said.

David McIntosh, a 27-year veteran at Sun-Rype, also decided not to return to the juice plant after the February settlement.

"I'm glad I quit," he told The Tyee. "From what I hear from guys who went back, they are treating people really badly."

"If we knew then what we know now, we probably wouldn't have settled," said Teamster local 213 business agent Gene Wirch. "Members tell me that working at Sun-Rype now is like being in prison."

Communications complaints

Wirch told The Tyee in a recent phone interview that Sun-Rype president and CEO Eric Sorenson and other management figures at the firm have been unresponsive to requests for information since the strike.

"We've been put on 'ignore' status when we ask questions like how many workers have returned to work and what happened to the jobs of the people who worked on the re-packaging line that disappeared from the plant during the strike. There is just no communication, the list of grievances keeps getting longer, and things get worse every day," he said.

The machinery for the re-packaging line was reportedly moved out of the plant during the strike, eliminating up to 30 jobs.

The Tyee called Eric Sorensen's office at Sun-Rype to ask for comments on these claims. His office staff refused to put through the call, referring the reporter to media spokeswoman Barb Grant. Repeated calls to Grant over two business days were not returned.

Profits down

Reports in the business press since the strike settlement in Kelowna have focused on Sun-Rype's diminished profits in 2007 and on a massive stock acquisition by Vancouver billionaire Jimmy Pattison that brought his already substantial holdings in the firm up to just under 49 per cent, more than enough to constitute effective control.

On March 20, the Canadian Press reported that Pattison's Great Pacific Capital Corp. had raised its stake in Sun-Rype by 1.5 million shares, bringing his total holdings in Sun-Rype through Great Pacific up to 5.3 million shares. Shortly before this purchase, on March 7, according to Business Edge, an online news service, Sun-Rype reported that its 2007 profits had suffered a 36 per cent decline against 2006. The juice company still racked up a respectable $4.6 million in 2007, but significantly less than the $7.3 million earned the year before.

The Tyee contacted Pattison's Vancouver offices to ask for comment for this story. His aide Maureen Chant said Pattison was travelling and could not be reached. Even if reached, she went on to say, he would be unlikely to speak to The Tyee. "We don't comment on our investments."

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