Hanover Foods employees could go on strike; here’s when and why

HANOVER, Pa. (WHTM) — Nearly 300 Hanover Foods workers who process and package green beans and other vegetables at a plant here could go on strike as early as Aug. 2, their union leader said Monday.

The employees were working under the terms of their old collective bargaining agreement, which expired on December 31, 2023. Wendell Young, president of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1776, said that fact alone is not unusual. So what does he think is unusual?

“This employer has taken a very tough tone in the negotiations,” Young said. “They want to eliminate their employees’ pension plans. They want to eliminate their health insurance” and are offering a 2 percent pay raise while the overall inflation rate is about 4 percent – “that’s just mean,” Young said.

Employees at the Hanover site receive their health and pension insurance through the union; the costs for these benefits are largely borne by the company.

Young said the company wants to replace contributions to the union’s pension plan (a traditional pension that promises employees monthly payments for life) with smaller company stakes in a defined-contribution 401k plan – and replace the union’s health insurance plan with a company plan that would expose employees to significantly higher health costs. And he accused the company of “dragging” negotiations by rarely scheduling bargaining sessions and sometimes canceling them or limiting their duration.

Hanover Foods said the union, not the company, was responsible for the unreasonable behavior.

“Hanover Foods is committed to fairness for all of our more than 1,300 employees – not just in Hanover, but at our 11 facilities in three states. We continue to negotiate in good faith with the union representing our Hanover employees to work out a new collective bargaining agreement, and we are proud to offer highly competitive compensation and benefits to our valued employees,” the company said in a statement attributed to CEO Jeff Warehime.

“The reality is that some employee benefits at the Hanover plants are much more expensive than at our other plants,” the statement continued. “We need to bring costs at our Hanover plants up to par with the rest of the company. That’s fair and that’s what we need to ensure that Hanover Foods can continue to be successful – not just today, but for the next 100 years.”

The next collective bargaining session is scheduled for Tuesday.