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4,300 UAW Workers Ratify Contract with Ford and More Bargaining News |
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The Bargaining Digest is back from the holidays, with a few recent items from the weeks of Dec. 17–Jan. 4. The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
UAW, Ford: Some 4,300 hourly employees, represented by UAW Local 249 at Ford’s Claycomo, Mo., plant, ratified a four-year agreement. The workers still are negotiating the issue of boosting production of the Escape, for which there has been strong demand despite most domestic vehicle sales being down from last year.
IBEW, Ameren: Some 1,800 workers in Illinois, represented by the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 51, approved a five-year contract with Ameren that includes annual wage increases. The deal ends about eight months of bargaining.
WGAE, ABC News Inc.: After working without a contract for nearly three years, 250 news writers, editors, production assistants, desk assistants, graphic artists and researchers, represented by Writers Guild of America, East, voted overwhelmingly to ratify a three-year contract with ABC News. The contract calls for 3.5 percent annual raises.
AFT, Rutgers University: Teachers at Rutgers University, represented by the Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT, ratified their first contract. A key point of the four-year contract involves raises spanning from 2007 to 2010. The pact includes a 4.5 percent retroactive, across-the-board increase.
AFT-NEA, Hernando County, Fla.: Hernando County, Fla., teachers, jointly represented by the AFT and the National Education Association (NEA), approved a new contract offer that calls for a 6 percent raise.
AFT-NEA, Anoka-Hennepin, Minn.: Teachers in the Anoka-Hennepin, Minn., school district, represented jointly by AFT and NEA, have reached a tentative two-year agreement. The agreement calls for teacher salary increases of 2.6 percent the first year and 2 percent the second year.
USW, Herman Miller’s Integrated Technologies: In Spring Lake Township, Mich., workers, represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2410, reached a three-year agreement with furniture maker Herman Miller’s Integrated Metal Technologies. The contract calls for wage increases of 2.7 percent, 3 percent and 2.75 percent, respectively.
UA, Advanced Fiber Technologies: Some 25 production workers, represented by the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) Local 434, reached an agreement with Advanced Fiberglass Technologies. Workers had voted Dec. 13 to strike after rejecting a contract that did not include language regarding the company’s time-off policy.
USW, BASF: Chemical giant BASF and workers at its Ascension Parish complex in Geismar, La., represented by the USW, reached a six-year contract. Details were not disclosed. Employees had been working under the terms of a five-year agreement that ended Aug. 31.
UFCW, Safeway: On Dec. 27, members of four locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) ratified a 46-month agreement with Safeway Inc. that provides wage increases for an estimated 25,000 employees at some 300 supermarkets across Northern California. The new contract includes wage increases and improvements in health care, pensions and job-protection language.
UFCW, Smithfield Foods: About 1,000 workers, represented by UFCW Local 1142, voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new contract with Smithfield Foods at the John Morrell Plant in Sioux City, Iowa. The contract provides for a $1.50 wage increase and increases in sick pay. According to Local 1142 President Warren Baker: “What’s puzzling about Smithfield is how it engages responsibly in the bargaining process with workers here in Sioux City, but at its Tar Heel, N.C., plant, the company is anything but responsible in the way it treats workers. It’s really a Jekyll and Hyde situation with Smithfield, and it makes people working for them very concerned.”
UFCW, Tyson Fresh Meat: Some 900 meatpacking workers, represented by UFCW Local 1149, at the Tyson Fresh Meats facility in Perry, Iowa, ratified a 54-month agreement. The pact provides a general wage increase of $1.50 per hour over term and immediately boosts starting wages for production workers from $9 per hour to $10 per hour and starting wages for maintenance workers from $11 per hour to $12 per hour.
WORK STOPPAGES
ATU, Access-A-Ride: The strike by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1181 at four companies contracted by the New York Metropolitan Transportaiont Authority ended with the ratification of a new agreement. Some 1,500 drivers provide transportation for the elderly and disabled. Fifty-three percent of union members accepted the settlement offer, which the union said addressed wages, health care and the duration of the contract.
UAW, International Truck and Engine Corp.: A seven-week strike by 4,000 International Truck and Engine workers, represented by the UAW at nine plants in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia and Texas, ended Dec. 16 with the ratification of a three-year agreement. The strike began Oct. 23, after the UAW filed charges that management had engaged in a series of unfair labor practices affecting the collective bargaining process.
ATU, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA): A 24-hour walkout set to begin Sunday, Dec. 16, by Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) workers, represented by ATU Local 308, was called off to give lawmakers more time. State lawmakers are struggling to find more money for mass transit. Last month, the CTA board voted to cut 81 bus routes, raised fares to as much as $3.25 and laid off more than 2,000 workers.
UFCW, Safeway: Some 7,000 grocery workers, represented by UFCW Local 401, at Canadian Safeway stores across Alberta have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Chief negotiator Teresa McLaren says members are concerned about contract concessions the company is demanding, such as the right to have outside workers stock shelves. Bargaining resumes today.
NEGOTIATION
AFSCME, University of California: Some 11,000 AFSCME-represented technical employees, who provide patient care support at the University of California’s nine campuses, asked the state to declare an impasse and hire an independent mediator to jump-start negotiations. Parties have been negotiating for more than five months. Wages have been a key issue throughout the bargaining process.
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Disclaimer: This information is being provided for your information only. As it is compiled from published news reports, not from individual unions, we cannot vouch for either its completeness or accuracy; readers who desire further information should contact the union involved directly.
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