Three International Brotherhood of Teamsters locals, representing about 300 drivers, sales agents and warehouse workers in Binghamton, Latham and Syracuse, complained to the labor board in October. PepsiCo is hindering the union’s effort to shop for a health plan without a “sin tax,” said Ozzie Martucci, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 669.“We’re against that type of tax, frankly,” Martucci said yesterday in a phone interview. “It feels wrong to tax workers if they are overweight or happen to have diabetes or smoke, and we wanted to look elsewhere for different insurance.”Pepsico workers can avoid the fee if they join programs to stop smoking or lose weight, said Dave DeCecco, a company spokesman. “These programs enable our associates and their families to live a healthier lifestyle,” he said.The fee is applied to smokers, as well as to workers who have diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure or asthma, conditions that often lead to being overweight, he said.
It wasn't long ago I read about boycotting Pepsi.
Seems more appropriate now than ever before.
Although I have to wonder if the push to persecute the "unhealthy" came from society or from the very top of the company.
