Union workers at the HP Hood ice cream plant in Suffield overwhelmingly ratified a three-year contract Friday that includes annual wage increases and pension benefits, union President Thomas Wilkinson said.
Under terms of the labor pact, the 65 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 371 at the 1250 East St. plant will receive guaranteed wage increases of 2.35 percent to 6.35 percent depending on job description, in each year of the contract.
“This contract shows that it pays to belong to the UFCW Local 371,” Wilkinson said.
“With the strength of their coworkers and their union family, the employees of Hood Ice Cream were able to secure industry-leading wage increases, and a defined benefit pension plan that non-union employees are largely unable to achieve,” he added.
Wilkinson declined to provide the vote numbers, saying only that the new contract was approved “overwhelmingly.”
He stressed that the workers were able to retain “guaranteed lifetime monthly pension benefits” in an age when such benefits are being widely curtailed.
A Hood official could not be reached Friday for comment.
Hood’s Suffield plant, built in 1965, produces a variety of ice cream and other frozen dessert products.
Hood is one of the largest dairy operators in the U.S. In 2004, HP Hood became HP Hood LLC when it acquired Binghamton, N.Y.-based Crowley Foods LLC, and Minneapolis, Minn.-based Kemps LLC.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 371 represents more than 8,000 members in Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, and Vermont working in many industries including retail food and food processing, transportation, casino gaming, and nursing.
