United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE), Northeast Region
5 Hill Street, Taunton, MA 02780
(774) 264 0110
office@uenortheast.org
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE), Northeast Region
November 18, 2002
Sisters and Brothers:
The 2 week strike by UE 234 members at Fairbanks Scales was settled yesterday and everyone went back to work, as a group, this morning. The company finally moved off of freezing the pension indefinitely and although workers will lose one year in pension credits the pension is "unfrozen" in the 3rd year of the contract. In addition the company reduced the co-pays on the prescription drugs in the first year of the contract and reduced the co-pays on the premiums in the 2nd and 3rd year. However, despite the company's reduced proposal workers on the family plan will still be paying $60 a week on the premium,, 2 person $40, and single $20. Wages will increase by $.26 an hour in the 2nd and 3rd years of the contract. There are increases to the A&S and bereavement leave.
It goes without saying that no one thinks this was a good settlement but it is better than what they went out for and the sisters and brothers felt very good about the fight they waged and the stand they took against the company. The community support was amazing. Restaurants brought prepared food to the picket line; teachers came down in groups to picket and present petitions of support; workers from Vermont Central Power brought food, money, themselves, and would go by in truck caravans just about every day with their horns blaring, the VT Workers Rights Center came down and helped get the word out; UPS drivers walked the line many times, and there was much, much more. This strike seemed to strike a chord with people in the Northeast Kingdom who have been experienceing huge lay-offs lately and have had more economic devastation heaped upon them, over the last year, than most areas of New England. This is the single biggest reason (along with the onslaught of winter and the fact that everyone knows people who are paying big bucks for health insurance) that people overwhelmingly decided to accept the improved offer and end the strike now.
The Progressive Party and VT Workers Rights Center will be having a spaghetti dinner for the UE 234 strikers and the families on November 25 at 6 pm in Breslin's in Lyndonville, VT. It will a celebration honoring our UE 234 sisters and brothers fight against the boss and addressing in a militant and forthright manner the need to solve the healthcare crises for all Vermonters.
Thanks to all the locals who sent and are sending donations to the local strike fund. The support throughout the District has been really good and whatever you can do will certainly be appreciated.
In Solidarity,
Peter Knowlton, President, UE District 2
Report by Hal Leyshon, Vermont Livable Wage Campaign
The striking Fairbanks Scales workers held a successful mass rally and picket this afternoon. In addition to an apparently 100% turn out of Fairbanks workers, the strikers were joined by over another 100 community supporters, including union members from other UE shops, the IBEW, Steelworkers, Washington-Orange Central Labor Council, the Vermont Livable Wage Coalition, Vermont Workers Center, North Country Coalition, and Unitarian Church.
Congressman Bernie Sanders and Anthony Pollina spoke (to chants of "the next governor") on the fight for universal health care and for livable wage jobs in Vermont.
Fairbanks has already seriously downsized its work force and is threatening to move St. J. work to its non-union Mississippi plant. When a UPS supervisor who had run the picket line the day before (nearly running down 6 women strikers) attempted to force his scab truck through the mass picket line he was met by strikers and community supporters who vigorously exercised their constitutional rights to picket and free speech! In the process, a particularly brave sheriff (in the private pay of Fairbanks management) punched a woman striker full on in the face. He is up for re-election next year.... James Haslam, director of the Workers Center was also falsely arrested, and a Workers Center supporter pepper sprayed. But the mass picket stood its ground! Picket lines mean don't cross - including in Vermont.
As a result, the scabs and a Fed Ex truck had to be escorted out by the largest police detail probably ever seen in the N.E. Kingdom. Various police admitted to being ashamed of their scab-herding in the service of a company trying to destroy the livable wages, affordable health care and pensions that the Fairbanks workers have won through their union.
People left feeling union proud, pledging to stand strong for a fair contract, and to continue to hold the front lines for working Vermonters' fights for livable wages and universal health care.
An article from the local paper - the Caledonian-Record.
BY LARA HUETH
Calendonian-Record Staff Writer
Monday November 4, 2002
ST. JOHNSBURY VT - With burn barrels, picket signs and passing cars honking in support, union members at Fairbanks Scales began marching in protest at 6 a.m. today.
We're "out on strike," said United Electrical Workers Local 234 president Robert South. Contract negotiations began Sept. 26. Meetings continued all through the weekend, but the union and Fairbanks Scales management could not come to an agreement over pensions, wage increase and health-care insurance issues.
The pension freeze was the main sticking point. Heretofore, workers would receive a monthly pension of $17.25 times a worker's years of service, said vice president of Local 234, Shirley Nutting. Nutting has worked as a sub-assembler for eight years; if she retired now, she would receive $138 per month. Given a pension freeze, Nutting would never receive more than $138, even if she worked another 20 years.
It affects the younger workers in particular, said Nutting. They might work another 30 years and at the end of it they'd have a pittance of a pension.
Another union grievance was health-care insurance. Workers pay their premiums weekly, but the company doesn't reimburse the medical bills until they're sent a collection notice, said worker Jeff Santo. Santo and others are also upset that the owner of Fairbanks Scales, Rick Nordan from Kansas City, Mo., has never visited the factory floor.
The workers don't understand the details of management's proposals nor the fragile economic condition of the company, said Ron Steen, a human resource consultant to Fairbanks Scales. It's only a one-year contract; if the financial climate improved next year, workers would renegotiate. We're not asking for a wage cut, just that workers contribute more to their health insurance. The pension would be reinstated after a year. Hence a 10-year veteran would only receive the pension of a nine-year worker, but that's a much less drastic change than what the union is claiming.
Steen said the union was offered an extension and an opportunity to look at Fairbanks' books to better understand their economic dilemma. Steen is disappointed that the union rejected the offer, but he said production will continue.
There are approximately 110 workers at the plant, 70 of whom are union members. It's possible that other workers will be brought in. As for firing union members, that's something that Fairbanks wants to avoid, but it could happen, said Steen. He doesn't think the dispute will be settled quickly.
Neither does the union. They said they'll be protesting in shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until a compromise is reached. Nutting said there is a fund to help union members with mortgage and car payments as well as buy food and gas.
