1. Dr Pepper Snapple argued that it had a responsibility as a public company to seek concessions from its workers. Explain that argument.
2. Is it wrong in your judgment for a profitable company to seek wage concessions from its workers? Explain.
Three hundred workers at the Mott’s apple juice plant (a Dr Pepper Snapple subsidiary) in Williamson, New York, waged a 16-week strike when the company demanded a $1.50 per hour pay cut even though Snapple had produced a $555 million profit in the previous year (2009) and increased its dividend by 67 percent in May 2010. Snapple claimed the wage cut was justifiable to increase competitiveness, because the workers were averaging $21 per hour while other similar workers were averaging $14.