Teamsters at Tillamook County Creamery Association are on strike to protest the dairy cooperative's proposal that they pay at least a 5% portion of their health insurance premiums. As part of the proposal, the employee-paid amount might rise higher if premiums increase above company-set caps.
Teamsters Local 58 workers at the Tillamook OR-based cheese plant do not pay for health insurance. The union represents around 250 of Tillamook's 560 employees.
Tillamook has proposed that workers, who receive an average of almost $15 an hour, get raises of about 3% per year for three years. The cooperative says its health care costs have doubled since 2000, to about $850 per worker every month.
Teamsters Local 58 members say the cost of the health care package would offset any increase in wages over the life of the agreement.
The second-largest cheese producer in the United States, the company distributes cheese and ice cream from the West Coast to the Mississippi River.
