A weak economy and the difficulty of getting public support for a strike were among the factors union leaders considered when they recommended that workers ratify a five-year labor agreement with Whirlpool Corp. this week.
“We did not make this decision easily,” said Dave Jones, president of Local 808 of the IUE (International Union of Electrical Workers), in a newsletter to membership Tuesday. “We had to consider things like the weak economy and job market. Would we get public and news media support for a strike?”
Jones also cited the cost of a strike to workers and their families and the possibility that Whirlpool could move production to Mexico, as it has with some products.
“With all things considered, your negotiating committee does not feel that this is the right time to win a strike,” Jones said. He and the negotiating committee thus recommended that members ratify the agreement that was negotiated over the last several weeks.
About 1,800 workers at Whirlpool’s Evansville plant will get a chance to vote on the tentative agreement starting today at Local 808 union hall, 2331 Bergdolt Road, Evansville. Union members may vote between 8:30 a.m. today and 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
A vote against the contract is a strike vote. The strike would begin at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Jones said.
In the 808 newsletter, Jones said the “worst parts” of the tentative agreement were those dealing with wages and medical insurance benefits. Good parts included the company boosting pension benefits, a general wage increase and a starting wage increase for new hires.
The tentative five-year agreement would give assemblers, whose base salary is now $15.19 an hour, a wage increase of $1.05 an hour over five years, plus $2,300 in lump-sum and signing-bonus payments during that time.
Wages for beginning assemblers, who now get $10.50 an hour under the company’s two-tier system, would be increased by $1.75 an hour over the five years. They, too, would receive the $2,300 in payments.
The company dropped a provision for random drug testing from its final proposal.
The company, in its newsletter Monday outlining the tentative agreement, said it “strongly believes this package provides significant improvement to the total compensation package of Whirlpool hourly employees. It also provides the Evansville Division the opportunity to be a more formidable competitor in the top-mount refrigerator industry.”
The Evansville plant makes refrigerators with freezers mounted on the top of the unit.
From courierpress.com