THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310561
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 47 lines
About 100 Teamsters union truck drivers will vote tonight on whether to accept a one-year contract with Tarmac America Inc. or go on strike.
Teamsters Local 822 President David Vinson described the Norfolk-based company's final offer as ``bad.'' Teamsters negotiators will not recommend approval of the contract.
``I don't know what they're going to do,'' Vinson said of the drivers. ``I'm going to tell them, `If you do reject the contract, you could end up on the street.' ''
The contract covers about 50 drivers based in Norfolk and 50 others in the Richmond area.
Tarmac is one of the nation's leading suppliers of construction materials and has been a principal supplier for highway work in Hampton Roads.
Tarmac is offering a one-year contract with a 30-cent an hour raise, Vinson said. Tarmac's Teamster-represented drivers make an average of $10.35 an hour, he said.
A strike would not force Tarmac back to the negotiating table - the contract the two sides negotiated is the company's final offer, said Ed Pittman, Tarmac's vice president of human resources.
``We believe the employees will make a reasonable decision,'' Pittman said. ``We never anticipate a strike, but if it does happen we will go on with our business.''
The agreement calls for an increase in life insurance coverage from $5,000 to $10,000 and the 30-cent an hour pay increase, Vinson said. But the company turned down the union's push to be included in Tarmac's 401(k) retirement savings program.
The length of the contract was also a sticking point for Teamsters negotiators. Generally, unions like the security of contracts that are longer than a year.
``We're going to use the one-year contract as positive thing,'' Vinson said. ``With this agreement, I wouldn't want it to be long-term because it is bad.''
Tarmac has been pushing for one-year contracts at its operating units throughout the country, because it gives the company more flexibility, Pittman said.
``We have done one-year contracts with our unions in Florida and everywhere for the past several years,'' he said, ``because anymore the business conditions change rapidly.''