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Teamsters support Dairy Security Act

The Teamsters Union announced today it will support the Dairy Security Act that is in the Senate version of the farm bill.

This amounts to a reversal of position for a union whose members include workers in the dairy, bakery, brewery and food processing industries.

“Our original objection to the DSA during the House debate and committee mark-up was driven by our concern for our members who work in dairy processing — that the supplies of milk to the processors could dry up under a supply management regime like the DSA as proposed in the House, thereby undermining
our members' job security,” Union General President James Hoffa wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees in a letter dated Friday.

“However, as your conference committee convenes and works to resolve the competing dairy chapters, we note that the contractual obligations that the dairy co-ops have with processors require them to deliver the milk in full, regardless of the stabilization provisions,” Hoffa continued.

“That is, if the co-ops don’t have enough milk, for whatever reason, they must procure product on their own to meet the contracts. The processors set the level of demand and the producers just have to meet it, DSA market stabilization notwithstanding. Nothing in the farm bill should change that market reality.”

Hoffa said the union also supports a five-year farm bill for all titles, the Senate’s $4 billion cut over 10 years to the food stamp program and $900 million for energy programs and opposes any changes to country-of-origin labeling for meat.