Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503060086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The vote, coming less than seven hours before the previous contract ran out, avoids what would have been the first strike in the industrial lighting manufacturer's 22-year history.
Members of Local 160 of the International Union of Electronic Workers, which numbers about 265, met for more than four hours Sunday to listen to details of the new contract.
"We didn't get all we wanted, but we got more than the company wanted to give us," said Rob Bishop.
Plant Manager Gerald Shoemaker reacted briefly to news of the vote, saying he was pleased, and, "We just wanted to be fair."
The new contract calls for pay raises of 50 cents an hour this year, and 35 cents each of the next two years on top of the average wage of $10.69 an hour. It adds an extra dollar per month to workers' pension plans this year and next. The company also offered to set up a 401K if the contract was approved Sunday.
"It's the best contract money can buy," said union president Ted Overbaugh. He and the rest of the union's bargaining committee endorsed the plan, although Overbaugh admitted afterward to wishing some concessions had not been necessary.
New language in the contract will allow the company to move at will most employees hired this year and afterward among many jobs, without regard for the employees' seniority.
Last week, Overbaugh had painted management's proposal as an all-out attack on seniority privileges, and said it would hamper employees' rights to bid for other jobs, stay in a department if they didn't want to be moved, or "bump" into a job held by a less senior employee when faced with a layoff. Management initially wanted to be able to move any employee, but the compromise effectively means that only future hires - not current union members - will be faced with the situation.
"This is the answer to their problems," said Ben Griffin, the IUE international representative who presented the contract to the membership.
"It's a good package," he said after the vote.
Union members went along with that assessment - but not without reservations. Several said that Hubbell, a unit of Orange, Conn.-based Hubbell Inc., isn't passing along its success to them with the financial rewards they think they deserve.
"It's kind of weak," Mike Lester said of the contract, saying he had hoped for more in the way of pension benefits.
"It's decent," said Delilah Ball, who wanted more of a pay raise and wondered if what employees received wouldn't be offset by more expensive insurance premiums. But with both her and her husband working at the 580-employee plant, she wasn't prepared to strike over it. "It's not that bad, but we've got to live with it for three years."
by CNB