On September 12 workers at Northrop Grumman at the Vermont Service Center in St. Albans, Vermont voted to ratify their first union contract. The three-year agreement comes after months of struggle by the members of new UE Local 208. Besides solid contractual protections and benefit improvements, it provides 9 percent increases in wages that they employer resisted granting right to the end.
Day service workers at Arc Bridges went on strike for one day – August 1 – against the unfair labor practices their company is committing. The strike was a huge success, with 70 percent participation, and a strong blow against the employer’s effort to decertify the union.
The workers are members of the new amalgamated Local 1123, chartered as a UE local in March. Local 1123 is the former independent American Federation of Professionals, which represents approximately 400 public and private sector workers in Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.
Plans for bargaining, organizing and political action were intensely discussed as UE Local 893-Iowa United Professionals held its 26th annual convention July 26 . “Members representing all areas of the state were in attendance and they were enthusiastic about the issues,” says Local President Becky Dawes. “Our Local will be heading into negotiations with the state in late fall and early winter, and we anticipate a difficult time due to the national economy and the additional impact of the state’s recent natural disasters.”
On July 30, one day before expiration of their old contract, UE Local 262 members at Madico, Inc. voted to approve a new three-year contract that includes wage increases of 4 percent each year, retirement improvements and increases in other benefits, as well as language improvements and a bonus plan.
Members of Local 204 used stickers, lunch time meetings, vocal chords, and a final-day march to the front office to achieve a three-year contract the committee could unanimously recommend, and the members would overwhelmingly ratify. Management at Haskon knew that to go beyond the August 6 expiration date would leave production completely in hands of the members without the “no work stoppage” clause of the contract being in effect. Once the expiration date rolls around, bosses are never quite sure what Local 204 has in store for them.
UE Local 799 has negotiated a new two-year agreement with the Delaware City Schools, with an across-the-board wage increase of 2.5 percent each year and additional raises based on years of service.
On May 14, workers at Merkle Korff, a factory producing sub-fractional electric motors, voted 41-32 to join UE. Together with the organizing win a few days later at Ferro Pfanstiehl in Waukegan, this brought nearly 120 new manufacturing workers into UE’s ranks in Greater Chicago.
In a tough fight for their second contract as UE members, Local 1110 members at Republic Windows & Doors showed that they still have the fighting spirit that helped them organize into UE in 2004. Workers defeated the company’s regressive bargaining tactics and, in an industry badly impacted by the depressed housing market, won a new three-year agreement that increases their wages by $1.60, and retains the gains they made in their first contact.
A few weeks after settling its contract with Republic Windows & Doors, UE Local 1110 has also reached agreement on a new contract with Ruan Logistics, Republic’s trucking contractor.
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