Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992 TAG: 9203140217
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
But the vote by local D-314 of the International Association of Boilermakers narrowed to a five-vote margin, the slimmest yet. The vote was 76-71.
Jeff Stump, local union president, said union officers will ask the company for another negotiating meeting.
Stump said it's hard to explain why the membership turned down an offer that was unanimously recommended by the negotiating committee. "This one was real close," he added.
"We'll go back and try again," Stump said.
The union has been working without a contract since the first of February.
A January vote rejected a company offer by a 35-to-1 margin. Several weeks later, the union membership again turned an offer down by a vote of 117 to 33.
The union objects to company plans to increase employee insurance payments and deductibles, to eliminate health benefits for retired employees and the practice of subcontracting work from the bargaining unit.
Ed Pittman, Roanoke Cement vice president, said earlier that the company's pay increase proposal of $2 an hour for the first 18 months would exceed any settlement in the cement industry in the last two years.
by CNB