On October 18, members of UE Local 1137 voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first union contact. Workers at the Ferro Pfanstiehl pharmaceutical plant had joined UE in May, when they chose UE representation by a two-to-one margin in an NLRB election.
Two major issues that drove both the organizing drive and contract negotiations were workers’ desire to stop the company from taking away employee benefits, and the need for a fair and rational wage system. Pay rates were all over the board, and even workers performing the same job often received vastly different wages.
In their first contract there are no takeaways, and all of the existing benefits are locked in. In addition, workers won a union shop, strong UE grievance procedure, and seniority language.
The company wanted to increase workers’ share of medical premiums to 25 percent. But the union was able to lock in the employee contribution at the current level of 20.1 percent.
The union negotiated a wage schedule with starting rates, top rates and a way to get to the top, for each classification. The top-paid workers took somewhat smaller raises in order to close the gaps. Wages per year will increase from 1 percent to more than 3 percent, with each worker guaranteed a raise of no less than 25 cents the first year and 35 cents the third year.
The bargaining committee consisted of Don Revis, Brian Williams and Tim Powers. They were assisted by UE Field Organizer Lynn Swiertz.