Workers From South Brunswick Packaging Facility On Strike Over Unaffordable Healthcare

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — Workers from a local packaging facility are striking after they’ve been working without a contract since December last year.

Members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2326, Region 9 are on strike at WestRock LLC, located in the Dayton section of South Brunswick after contract negotiations broke down due to disagreement on the healthcare plan.

Workers say the company wants to enroll them in a plan that has less coverage than what they are receiving currently.

“The company, whose profits soared into the billions during the pandemic is now demanding that the “essential” workers, who kept the company working and profitable, making boxes for Amazon, Budweiser and many other corporations, enroll in a different healthcare plan that has an unaffordable deductible,” said Charles Wowkanech, president of New Jersey AFL-CIO.

The NJ AFL-CIO is supporting the UAW Local 2326, Region 9 in the strike.

The company has been in negotiations with the workers since December 2022, and the workers have been without a contract since Dec. 15 of the same year.

Owing to the strike, the facility is currently on a "lockout," the company said.

"Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2326 have initiated a strike, prompting a lockout at the WestRock corrugated converting facility in Dayton, New Jersey. Production from the Dayton facility has been moved to other regional WestRock locations while the strike is ongoing," a company spokesperson said.

"The Company remains hopeful a collective bargaining agreement will be reached soon."

WestRock employs around 100 UAW members. Their facility is located at 1 Corn Road, Dayton.

The company has more than 300 production facilities worldwide and employs about 58,000 people.

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