BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
Wildish Wins
Teamsters angry over upcoming
Chamber of Commmerce award
T
he Eugene Area Chamber of
Commerce plans to give Wildish com-
panies its Emerald Award for Business
of the Year. The award exemplifies growth,
community caring, environmental values and
innovation. But the Teamsters, whose 60 truck
drivers, mechanics and plant
operators have been working
for Wildish Sand and Gravel
since April 1 without a con-
tract, say they aren’t seeing
much community caring
from Wildish.
The Teamsters Union
Local 206 has asked the
Chamber to withdraw the
award, scheduled for Sept.
25. If the award is not with-
drawn or at least delayed
until union workers have a
“fair contract settlement,”
the union says, they may
have “an action” at the
event.
Other nominees for the
award included Eugene
Magazine, Eugene Water &
Electric Board, Hamilton
Construction,
Hynix
Semiconductor
Manufacturing
America,
Invitrogen
Molecular Probes Labeling Tech, Springfield
Creamery and The Good Company.
In a letter sent to the Chamber on Sept. 17,
the union calls rewarding Wildish for being a
good employer “ironic” and alleges that
Wildish has hired a notorious union buster,
Jim Frazer of the United Employers
Association, to “strip away” union health in-
surance and pension benefits, as well as
“long-standing union security provisions.”
In the past Wildish has been “tough but
fair” in their negotiations, says Stefan
Ostrach, who represents the union. But he
questions their recent hiring of Frazer, who
he says “is not someone you want to hire
when you want to reach an agreement.”
Frazer has been called a “union buster” by
the Northwest Labor Press, which says his
negotiating tactics have led to “bitter labor
disputes” including lengthy strikes, one of
which led to the suicide of a Cummins
Northwest Inc. employee in 1999.
Vice President Steve Wildish and General
Services Director Randy Hledik of Wildish
Sand and Gravel say they were not aware of
Frazer’s anti-union reputation. He was rec-
ommended by other businesses as “profes-
sional and skilled” and was hired after the ne-
gotiator they had used for 25 years died. They
said of Frazer, “We were impressed with him
and his knowledge.”
The changes to the union contract are a re-
sponse to employee requests, according to
Wildish and Hledik. They say that some em-
ployees did not want to pay mandatory union
fees and others complained of high health
care costs. Also, due to employee turnover,
many new hires were not employed long
enough to be vested in the pension plan, and
they say, this is a recruitment barrier.
Steve Wildish adds that with this contract,
“we are happy to say that we have offered the
most wage and benefit increases in the his-
tory of our company.”
The market, local and statewide, is chang-
ing, he adds. Wildish is one of the only fam-
ily-owned sand and gravel companies left in
Eugene, says Steve Wildish.
Egge and Eugene Sand and
Gravel were both purchased
by Oldcastle Materials, an
Irish company, and Morse
Bros. was bought by Knife
River, a national corpora-
tion.
“We need to remain
competitive and offer our
employees the very best
package we can,” says
Wildish.
“Wildish provides liv-
ing-wage jobs for thousands
of people and invests in em-
ployee development,” says
the press release from the
Chamber of Commerce.
But taking away a union
pension and replacing it
with a 401(k) means replac-
ing a lifelong monthly income for retired em-
ployees (and sometimes their spouses) with a
fund that could run out before the death of the
employee, says Ostrach.
The pension benefits are “the light at the
end of the tunnel,” says Wes Moss, a truck
driver who has worked for Wildish for 22
years. He had planned to retire five years
from now. Wildish’s proposed plan, which
would exchange pension benefits for a 401(k)
and push back the retirement age, would
force him to work an additional eight years,
into his 60s.
Moss, who has diabetes and other health
issues, says he worries about working 12
more years at a physically demanding job:
“My health is not the best. I may not live to be
62.”
This new contract is “almost a death sen-
tence,” he says.
“He’s sentenced to eight more years hard
labor and out of $100,000 of pension bene-
fits,” says Ostrach. “That’s not good for the
community.”
“The Wildishes have treated me person-
ally very well,” says Moss, “but this is a
major blow.”
If contract negotiations continue to fail,
Wildish’s Teamsters-organized workers have
“authorized a strike,” says Ostrach, though he
hopes it does not come to that. The next me-
diation between the Teamsters and Wildish is
set for Friday, Sept. 21.
David Hauser, president of the Chamber,
says withdrawing or delaying the award
based on the Teamsters’ assertions is “just out
of the question.” The Chamber is honoring
Wildish, he says, for what the companies
have already done to contribute to the “vital-
ity and quality of the community.”
The Chamber’s Emerald Awards will be
given at 5 pm Tuesday, Sept. 25, at the Hult
Center.
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