Tree Island Workers Negotiate Big Reduction in Healthcare Costs

December 13, 2013

At the end of difficult negotiations in which members conducted a six-week contract campaign, Local 1421 has a new three-year contract with Tree Island Wire that includes a new healthcare plan that drastically reduces workers’ costs.

But it didn’t come easy. The company came into negotiations in September proposing proposing two years of wage freezes and only 25 cents the last year. For the handful of worker whose pay rates were above the wage scale, the company offered no increase at all. The company was unwilling to lower employee health insurance contributions to alleviate the impact to their stingy wage proposal.

The union was put in a tough position by the fact that other unions in Tree Island plants had agreed to similar terms to what the company was proposing in Pomona.

The company seemed to believe UE would accept what was being proposed and that negotiations would conclude the week they started. But the members had other ideas. That was obvious even before the first bargaining sessions, when members conducted a union shirt day. When the bargaining committee reported back to the members what the company was proposing, people were angry and the fightback was launched.

Every week for the next six weeks, there delegations of rank-and-file members visited negotiations. There were also shirt actions, concerted actions where the workforce wore stickers addressing the issues, wore UE buttons, and two major petition drives including a march to the plant manager’s in-plant office. The bargaining committee and other shop leaders kept their co-workers well informed and focused throughout the contract campaign. Members also picketed the plant, including one day of picketing in which all three shifts participated.

Workers had their own agenda for what they expected in the new contract, including improvements in wages, reducing their healthcare costs, and improving the 401(k) plan.  Through a multi-employer Labor-Management Trust Fund, the union was able to propose an alternative healthcare plan that would reduce costs to both the workers and the company while providing better services.  The Trust Fund is composed of 30 unionized employers and more than 10,000 union workers throughout Southern California. The size of its member pool enables the Trust Fund to offer unions and employers good rates.

The company liked the savings it would get, especially in the Trust Fund’s family plan, but was unwilling to allow all workers the option to join the Trust Fund plan. The company wanted to workers in the family plan to switch to the Trust Fund, and keep those on single coverage and two-person coverage in the old plan.  The company also stubbornly stuck to its original paltry wage proposal. 

But the union fought and succeeded in having all members benefit from the savings resulting from the Trust Fund plan. All members in the family healthcare plan (the largest group in the shop) go into the Trust Fund family plan, and those on the single and two-person plans are allowed to move into the Trust Fund family plan during open enrollment. The union got the company to agree that all workers (even those not covered by the Trust Fund plan) will enjoy significantly reduced healthcare premium contributions.  Workers on the single plant went from paying 25 percent of the premium to only 5 percent.  Workers with employee-plus-one coverage went from paying 37 percent of premium to 5 percent, and workers with family coveag went from paying 37.5 percent of premium to 10 percent.

The union was also able to add vision care benefits. On wages, the 25 cent increase will go to everyone.  Workers gained an additional day of bereavement leave and inclusion of in-laws.  Workers also won shoe allowance increase as well as prescription safety glasses allowance increase. The union achieved most of its proposed changes in contract language. These included counting vacation hours as hours worked in calculating weekend overtime.  There were other important language improvements on job posting, cross training, grievance procedure, and prohibition of harassment by management.  Members voted overwhelmingly to approve the contract.

The union bargaining committee consisted of Chief Steward Vicente Zavala, Armando Rivas and Jose Vargas. They were assisted by Local 1421 President Bryan Martindale, UE Field Organizer Fernando Ramirez, and Local 1421 Executive Board member Brian Barrington.

                                                                                                                                                                  

Subscribe!

If you like what you read, please consider subscribing to the UE NEWS — for as little as $5/year you can support great labor journalism and receive the print edition of the UE NEWS four times per year.

You can also sign up to receive monthly UE NEWS Bulletins via email, or follow UE on FacebookTwitterInstagram and YouTube.