Inside
MEETING
NOTICES
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Page 6
Volume 114
Number 4
February 15, 2013
Portland
Grocery workers ratifying new contracts
Grocery workers at major super-
markets in Oregon and Southwest
Washington are voting on new collec-
tive bargaining agreements this month,
bringing an end to nearly two years of
negotiations that was steering toward a
strike.
At press time, new contracts had
been ratified at Fred Meyer (Kroger),
Safeway, Albertsons, and QFC stores
in Portland, Vancouver, Eugene, The
Dalles, Hood River, Newberg, Bend,
Newport, and Burns. Voting will take
place in other parts of the state through
Feb. 20.
United Food and Commercial
Workers (UFCW) Local 555 represents
approximately 14,000 grocery clerks,
meat cutters, and central checkout
clerks at the stores. A 45-member Unity
Bargaining Committee has been in ne-
gotiations for more than 22 months
with Allied Employers Inc., a Kirkland,
Washington-based firm representing
grocers. It is the first time in the union’s
history that contracts from each geo-
graphic region within its jurisdiction —
from Klamath Falls, Oregon, to
Longview, Washington — were bar-
gained simultaneously.
Up until late January, employers had
budged very little on their demands to
increase the minimum waiting time to
receive full health care coverage (from
Portland area grocery workers and meat cutters listen to details of a labor
agreement reached last week between UFCW Local 555 and Safeway, Fred
Meyer, Albertsons and QFC stores.
43 months to a minimum of 78
months), and to double the out-of-
pocket annual maximum for family
coverage to $12,000. Employers also
wanted the ability to schedule workers
seven days a week without any days off
or having to pay overtime, effectively
eliminating the five-day work week.
Having seen enough, the union
scheduled a series of statewide strike
vote/contract update meetings for
members throughout the month of Feb-
ruary. That action prompted the em-
ployer group to engage in a four-day,
68-hour marathon bargaining session
starting Jan. 29. Those talks resulted in
an offer the union was willing to take
to its membership for a vote.
“This was some of the toughest bar-
gaining in bad times that I’ve ever
seen,” said Secretary-Treasurer Jeff An-
derson, a 36-year member of the union.
Anderson said employers agreed to
merge the Portland area medical plan
with the Joint Labor Management Re-
tail Trust. JLMRT covers employees
from Salem to the California border, in
Central Oregon, in far Eastern Oregon,
and in Southwest Washington.
Employers will increase funding for
medical insurance by 14.87 percent;
JLMRT members will see their Level 3
benefits improve, with deductibles re-
duced from $500 to $300 and annual
out-of-pocket costs reduced from
$5,000 to $3,000. After annual de-
ductibles are met, the plan will pay 85
percent of the bill, a 10 percent increase
from the previous contract.
Contract expiration dates also were
altered so that Portland will lead off in
the next round of bargaining starting in
June 2015. The union wanted its largest
group to be first out of the blocks be-
cause it provides more power at the bar-
gaining table. In the past, the Portland
unit bargained toward the end, after
smaller contracts downstate had al-
ready been completed. Additionally, the
time span between when the first and
last contracts expire was narrowed from
30 months to 16 months.
Anderson acknowledged that the
contracts also contained “some awful
stuff,” but he said it was probably the
best the bargaining committee was go-
ing to get, short of a strike. Workers will
get a raise of 25 cents an hour over
three years; it will take new hires more
hours to reach journey-level status; and
they won’t be paid time-and-a-half
when working holidays.
The new contracts for the Portland
area expire in June 2015; Vancouver
expire in December 2015; The Dalles/
Hood River expire in June 2016; Eu-
gene expire in February 2016; Newberg
expire in September 2015; McMin-
nville expire in August 2016; Bend ex-
pire in July 2015; Burns expire in De-
cember 2015; Lincoln City/Newport
expire in August 2016.
Daimler Trucks to lay off 250 union workers at Swan Island plant
Daimler Trucks North America will lay off 250
union production workers at its Swan Island truck
plant March 1, part of a 1,300-worker downsizing
throughout North America “due to the present
softening of economic conditions.”
The layoffs do not impact managers, supervi-
sors, engineers, and support staff, or nearly 2,000
nonunion white-collar workers at Daimler’s Port-
land headquarters, said Joe Kear, business repre-
sentative of Machinists Lodge 1005.
The Portland manufacturer of heavy-duty
Western Star trucks currently has a unionized
workforce of 930.
Hardest hit by the layoffs is Machinists Lodge
1005, which will lose 180 members. Teamsters
Local 305 will lose 44 members; Sign Painters
and Paint Makers Local 1094 will lose 25 mem-
bers; and Service Employees Local 49 will lose
four members. For the Machinists Union, that
means all employees hired on or after June 1,
2011, will be laid off. For Painters Local 1094, all
employees hired on or after Sept. 6, 1994, will be
laid off. All Teamsters Local 305 employees hired
on or after Nov. 14, 2011 will be laid off. And all
Service Employees Local 49 members hired on or
after Feb. 23, 1998, will be laid off. Workers will
have four years of call-back rights.
Labor’s Community Service Agency and
Worksystems Inc. are meeting with impacted
workers to assist with career counseling and other
support services. Kear told the Labor Press that
Daimler Trucks North America also will file a pe-
tition for federal Trade Adjustment Assistance.
In October 2011, Freightliner announced with
great fanfare that it would hire 350 shop workers
in 2012. At the time, it had a unionized workforce
of approximately 700.
“Orders were up, they had a backlog, and they
anticipated orders would keep going up. But those
orders never materialized,” Kear said.
The expanded workforce eventually caught up
with the backlog, and because new orders were
slow coming in, Daimler in 2012 imposed tempo-
rary shutdowns, furloughing workers for one, two,
and three days at a time. The last three-day shut-
down was in late January.
After the March 1 layoffs, the plant will go
from two shifts producing 34 trucks a day, to one
shift producing 26 trucks a day. Half-a-dozen shop
floor managers and supervisors from swing shift
will be reassigned to day shift.
The union workers are in the final months of a
three-year contract that expires June 28. Bargain-
ing for a new contract will begin in a few months.
Daimler (formerly Freightliner) actually was
preparing to close the Swan Island manufacturing
plant in October 2008. But after learning that it
would incur substantial “legacy” costs to its union
workers if it closed, the German-owned company
rescinded the planned closure with the proviso that
the unions agree to wage and benefit concessions,
which they did.
Wages at the truck plant have been frozen for
four years, Kear said.
Daimler notified North Carolina state officials
that, effective April 1, it plans to lay off 715 em-
ployees at its truck plant in Cleveland, 405 work-
ers at its plant in Mount Holly, and 80 people at its
Components and Logistics business in Gastonia.
The company is in the process of building a
311,000-square-foot warehouse to support the
parts plant in Gastonia. The $25 million facility is
slated for completion in August.
Production workers in North Carolina are
members of the United Auto Workers.
Daimler also operates a huge nonunion manu-
facturing plant in Saltillo, Mexico. There was no
announcement of any layoffs there.
Daimler said in a statement that it resorted to
the layoffs “due to the present softening of eco-
nomic conditions that has adversely impacted the
entire North American commercial vehicle indus-
try.” The cuts, it said, will “synchronize current
production rates to incoming orders.”