Machinists get first contract for Chehalis foundry workers
Bargaining will resume again
next year with Australian
multinational Bradken …
if a ‘decert’ effort fails
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Workers at the Bradken foundry in
Chehalis, Washington, have a first-ever
collective bargaining agreement, 21
months after winning union represen-
tation.
“It’s a pretty basic first contract,”
says Joe Kear, business representative
at International Association of Ma-
chinists District Lodge W24. “But it
has a lot of protections people didn’t
have before.”
At the foundry, owned by Aus-
tralian multinational Bradken, 98 pro-
duction workers turn out heavy-duty
metal products like ship propellers and
turbines, pumps, and valves used in
power plants and oil refineries.
On Aug. 10, 2012, the workers
voted to unionize, above all to end an
arbitrary and secretive pay system.
Wages varied up to $10 an hour for the
same job, and new hires sometimes
were paid more than the long-time
workers who trained them.
May 17 panel to focus
on universal health care
A union-backed group advocating
for publicly funded universal health
care will present a panel discussion
May 17 at the Oregon AFL-CIO’s Port-
land headquarters. The panelists are
University of Massachusetts economic
professor Gerald Freedman, Oregon
Center for Public Policy analyst Janet
Bauer, and Oregon School Employees
Association business rep Fernando
Gapasin. They will give a presentation
about the economic benefits of single
payer universal health care for unions,
low-wage workers and community
groups.
The event is sponsored by Health
Care for All Oregon, a coalition of
unions and community groups.
It will take place 4 to 6 p.m. Satur-
day, May 17, at 3645 SE 32nd Avenue.
The new contract ends that arbitrari-
ness with a set wage schedule that also
raises compensation 3 percent overall
and gives raises to most workers.
Whereas pay was formerly a hodge-
podge, now all workers are assigned to
classifications with an established pay
scale. Depending on classification,
wages start between $11.33 and $17.49
an hour, rise every six months, and top
out after three years at $17 to $24.50 an
hour. Swing and graveyard workers get
a 30-cent hourly premium. Higher-paid
workers who found themselves at or
above the top of the scale won’t get a
pay raise, but will get a one-time sign-
ing bonus of $350. Lower-paid work-
ers got raises to bring them up to where
the new scale says they should be.
The contract adds some standard
union protections, like no discipline
without just cause, and a grievance
procedure that can end in binding arbi-
tration. To curb management fa-
voritism, the contract gives more sen-
ior workers preference in job bidding,
promotions, layoffs, recalls and shift
assignments. A labor-management
committee will meet quarterly to ad-
dress production and other concerns.
And members will get to elect a work-
place safety committee.
The contract also codifies Brad-
ken’s existing workplace policies into a
legally binding contract. The company
will continue to provide health, dental,
and vision insurance, short and long
term disability insurance, and life in-
surance. Employees and their families
A TRUCK-SIZED BUMPER STICKER: A sign contributed by the
Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council rides around Chehalis in the
pickup truck of pro-union foundry worker Darren Wright. Wright said the
union election and first contract at Bradken are a big deal in Chehalis,
population 7,259. Lewis County is a politically conservative and mostly
nonunion area. Its largest city is Centralia, which has fewer than 17,000
residents. The area has been in significant economic distress in recent decades,
particularly since the 2006 closure of Centralia coal mine. If Bradken workers
win improvements through unionizing, Wright thinks, it could set an example
for workers elsewhere.
will continue to contribute to premi-
ums, and pay a deductible. Workers
will get 10 paid holidays plus two to
four weeks a year of vacation, jury
duty pay, and up to three days of paid
bereavement leave for the death of a
family member.
Bradken wouldn’t agree to a tradi-
tional “defined benefit” pension, but
will continue a 50 percent match to
employees contributions to a 401(k) re-
tirement savings account. And at its
discretion, the company will continue
to make an annual 401(k) contribution.
Its 401(k) contributions have ranged
from 1.5 to 4 percent of gross wages in
recent years.
Members ratified the contract by 63
percent, though less than half the work-
force turned out for the April 27 vote.
“We wanted a lot more than we
got,” said bargaining team member
Darren Wright, a lead molder who’s
been at the foundry 13 years. “But with
the way the company was bargaining
with us, it’s probably the best we were
going to get.”
Bradken refused to agree to several
common features of union contracts,
including collecting union dues through
payroll deduction and requiring all em-
ployees covered by the union contract
pay union dues; instead, all workers be-
come members now, but may opt out
during a two-week period in October.
The contract runs through April 26,
2015. Kear said the union wanted the
short one-year duration so that it could
come back soon to bargain for im-
provements.
The August 2012 vote to unionize
was a close one — 48 to 44. With no
union contract in sight a year after that,
workers who were opposed to the
union petitioned for a “decertification”
election, but the National Labor Rela-
tions Board put that request on hold
while it investigated union charges that
the company was engaging in illegal
“surface bargaining” (going through
the motions of bargaining without seri-
ously intending to reach agreement).
District Lodge W24 dropped those
charges as part of the contract settle-
ment, so ironically, workers could end
up voting whether to dump the union
even though they already have a union
contract. The two sides are engaged in
a legal disagreement over whether the
decertification election should move
forward.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
MAY 16, 2014