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Meadow Gold
talks continue
Disputed contract issues include
wages and medical benefits
Workers and Meadow Gold Dairies Hawaii management continued contract talks late into the night yesterday to head off a strike at the state's sole remaining dairy processor that could disrupt island milk supplies and lead to higher prices.
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The two sides had been negotiating on a new contract for Oahu members of Local 996 of the Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Local Workers union and held talks yesterday well into the evening. The union's contract expired at midnight yesterday.
But workers voted Wednesday to strike after failing to agree with management on a range of issues including medical benefits, pensions, wages and the subcontracting of some dairy processing work to outside parties.
A strike would be more bad news for Hawaii's milk consumers.
Meadow Gold competitor Foremost Dairies-Hawaii stopped processing milk in August and recently announced plans to shut down in November, citing deteriorating conditions at its Honolulu plant. Since August, Meadow Gold has processed Foremost's dairy products.
The Teamsters represent 150 drivers, processors and other workers at Meadow Gold.
The contract dispute involves workers employed at Meadow Gold's Honolulu plant near Keeaumoku Street. Meadow Gold also operates a processing plant on the Big Island, whose workers are under a contract that is still in effect. However, union representatives indicated that workers at the Big Island plant might strike in sympathy.
Key Meadow Gold customers said they were confident the dairy processor's contingency plan would be sufficient to avert a break in production.
But local supermarkets, the state public school system and other milk consumers are hedging their bets.
The Department of Education, which serves about 150,000 half-pint containers of locally processed milk each day in Hawaii's public schools, has been looking for suppliers of an alternative beverage to wash down school lunches, probably frozen-concentrate juice, said the department's deputy food services manager, Lynn Hiratsuka.
"We're concerned, especially if there is an extended strike," Hiratsuka said.
Foodland Super Market Ltd. has been adding to its usual milk inventory this week in anticipation of a strike and has taken steps to arrange an alternate milk supplier, a company spokeswoman said.
The only alternative for local retailers, however, is importing prepackaged milk from the mainland, which could add to already high milk prices.
Robin Takara, general manager of the Tamura's grocery store in Wahiawa, said the store recently increased its orders of imported packaged milk by 40 percent and that it will result in an initial price increase of around 10 cents per gallon.
"We have less flexibility on pricing with the mainland milk, so it should go up but not drastically," Takara said.
Milk prices in Honolulu have risen this year to around $6.50 to $8 per gallon.
The long-term fallout is less clear if a strike persists, and some retailers said the situation illustrates the risks of the state relying on a single dairy processor.
"This isn't just bad for us; it's bad for the whole state," said Daniel Bulatao, operations manager for local ice cream maker Dave's Hawaiian Ice Cream, which produces about 9,000 3-gallon tubs of ice cream a month.
Dave's relies exclusively on cream supplied and delivered by Meadow Gold, and Bulatao called the strike a "double whammy."