July 30, 2008: As Sealy Company (ZZ) shares continue to lose value -- down 57% since its initial public offering in April 2006 -- and a new CEO, Larry Rogers, takes over, the mattress manufacturer faces a labor dispute in Portland, Oregon. Teamsters Local 206 represents loaders who are expected to lift and stack thousands of pounds of mattresses by hand every hour. Sealy is majority owned and controlled by the buyout firm KKR, which is under attack around the world for its anti-worker policies.

According to Tom Leedham, the Local Union's principal officer, Sealy has stonewalled and backtracked in the negotiations. "This company, which literally breaks the bodies of its employees, is refusing to pay one more penny for health insurance over the next three years," relates Leedham. "When offered a less expensive plan, they insisted on keeping all the savings for themselves. They're actually going backwards in negotiations."

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