Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 7, 1992 TAG: 9203070306
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The possibility of a strike is always there, so why use the word just to irritate the company, he said.
"We're doing this like ladies and gentlemen," he said Friday. The tone of the talks has been good, and "each side has respected themselves at the table."
The three-year contract that covers 285 workers at the lighting manufacturer runs out Sunday at midnight.
Rothweiler said the sides continue to move toward middle ground on several economic issues - health insurance, pension, benefits and wages. He said the negotiators will likely meet for a few hours today to settle on the final points.
The union membership will meet 1 p.m. Sunday to review and vote on the new contract.
There has not been a strike at the plant since the union organized workers there in 1977. The plant, which makes lighting fixtures for malls, stadiums, parking lots and other commercial users, opened in 1973.
Plant manager Wesson Brown declined to comment on the contract talks. Hubbell policy is to direct all media questions to the parent offices in Connecticut. A corporate spokesman there was unavailable.
Local union officials surveyed the workers before the negotiations began last month to find out what issues concerned them most.
"Their most important thing was health care," said local president Ted Overbaugh. He said members had seen workers at other plants, such as the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, be forced to pay a tremendous increase in their share of health costs.
Hubbell workers pay $8 a month for single-person coverage, and $15 a month for an individual with one dependent.
Rothweiler said the company is proposing that workers pay $30 a month for individual coverage, with similar jumps for family coverage.
Bob Bosser, who was elected by the members as an at-large union representative on the bargaining unit, said workers were much more worried about health insurance going up than not getting a good wage increase.
Pay raises are quickly eaten up if the health insurance costs go sky high, Bosser said.
Rothweiler said the union at first sought a hourly pay increase of $1 for the first year of the contract, and the company countered with a 10-cent raise.
"So you can see how far we're apart. We'll meet somewhere in the middle."
The union is not asking for a cost-of-living increase because inflation is low, and an acrossthe-board increase will serve the members better, he said.
Workers earn an average of $9.64 an hour at the plant.
He said the company can pay for the union's demand if they implement a "self-directed" work force, which he said the union wants to be included in the labor contract.
The General Electric plant in Salem, which is also represented by the electronic union, saved millions last year by allowing workers to suggest and make changes in the manufacturing process, Rothweiler said.
Rather than supervisors telling workers what to do and how to do it, workers tell supervisors the best and most efficient way things can be done and supervisors help them make changes, he said.
by CNB