Steelworkers walk picket lines
Apr 9, 2012 | 89 Comments
News-Register Staff
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Comments
Can someone explain what is the purpose of the "picket line"? For the general public, very few people seem to care.
"�Morale is up,� he said, adding that there is a disc jockey playing music. He said they have had pop-up tents, heaters, burn barrels and coffee and water stations set up at times.
1) We are not greedy people and we do appreciate our jobs. We only want a fair deal with the company that we have stuck by and rallied with in good and bad times.
2)Striking is not a position that we took on a whim, unless you have been in the negotiations and have first hand knowledge of all that is proposed, then it is unfair to judge us.
3) I hear allot about the money we make, this is a very interesting topic. Did you know that in the last 20+ years that the steel workers here have not received an raise!.
let me explain this, we have received a cost of living adjustment. This is not a raise. this is so that you can buy under ideal conditions the same items now as you did in the previous years. a raise on the other hand brings your financial standard up from previous levels.
4) To be clear this strike is not about financial compensation, at this point the company hasn't even talked about that in any depth. It's about them bargaining in good faith with the folks they employ,
2) Most middle class jobs have not kept with inflation.
3) "in the last 20+ years that the steel workers here have not received an raise"! That is mostly on how a raise is interpreted. It can be interpreted in many ways depending on a person's point of view.
4) What is "bargaining in good faith with the folks they employ"? If you disagree with the person you are bargaining with, does that mean that s/he is not "bargaining in good faith"?
I wish all of you an outcome that works well for everyone involved.
I find your interpretation of comment #3 surprising, as I thought my explanation was very clear. a cola is a cost of living adjustment, and our cola over the past years has not kept up with inflation either. A raise allows you to have more purchasing options than before. and raises your standard of living.
#4 the old saying goes, it takes two to tango. if the company wants to truly negotiate then by all means that's what we want as well. but if they just want to play games and make no true strides in the resolution of this dispute then what would you have us do.
#1 a fair contract is one that insures our ability to work and raise our families, but also provides us with a standard of living and working compensatory to the work we preform. Please let me preface this. Our jobs have substantial risks inherent to the nature of the tasks we preform.
If you have never stood on very hot steel for long periods of time then you cannot understand the job we do and it would be useless for me to continue debating our current labor situation with you.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It's official. The first decade of the 21st century will go down in the history books as a step back for the American middle class.
Last week, the government made gloomy headlines when it released the latest census report showing the poverty rate rose to a 17-year high. A whopping 46.2 million people (or 15.1% of the U.S. population) live in poverty and 49.9 million live without health insurance.
But the data also gave the first glimpse of what happened to middle-class incomes in the first decade of the millennium. While the earnings of middle-income Americans have barely budged since the mid 1970s, the new data showed that from 2000 to 2010, they actually regressed.
For American households in the middle of the pay scale, income fell to $49,445 last year, when adjusted for inflation, a level not seen since 1996.
And over the 10-year period, their income is down 7%.
"Economists talk about the lost decade in Japan. Well, with these 2010 data, we can confirm the lost decade for the American middle class," said Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
You said, "If you have never stood on very hot steel for long periods of time then you cannot understand the job we do and it would be useless for me to continue debating our current labor situation with you".
That is similar to what teachers always say in their negotiations. That argument just doesn't work well. Many people have very difficult jobs, both mentally and physically.
Again, if the situation warrants that everyone gets additional compensation, that is great. If the value of product goes down, or is in less demand, then unfortunately, the value of a person's labor goes down as well, even though a person is working just as hard, or harder.
If I had to guess, I'd say management or the family of management.
I am proud of my co-workers that stand on the picket line with me no matter what happens in the long run. Thank you to all the people who honk and wave as they drive by, it keeps our moral up.
I haven't seen hate posted in any of the above comments.
We are not only fighting for ourselves but for future union employees of Cascade. Also to not fight now would be disrespectful to our union brothers and sisters who have fought for the past 40 years for the benifits that we currently have.
I, too, wish for you the best of all possible outcomes for all involved.
I've honored picket lines all my life. Now I could have asked the store where I'd purchased a single stick of #5 r-bar yesterday if it was a Cascade Rolling Mill's product, but I didn't. Sorry.
op9,
It also takes at least two, to Apache dance, and that seems more likely than a tango. So, cinch-up your fishnets ladies, you could be in for a long one!
To the second group of posters that whine about our being greedy or overpaid, I say this you are not me or my union brothers and sisters and I really don't believe you can fully understand what we do or what we have lost over the last several years. So please just keep your hate and ignorance of this situation to yourself.
Michael Tubbs Sr, any good dance takes two, and we may well be looking at a long haul (who knows) but if we don't try for better contract then having a union would be pretty worthless don't you think.
We just want what anyone else would want in our place, a contract that's equitable and fair.
Truckerman
All of my four children were born courtesy of an AFL/CIO group membership zero-deductible Blue Cross medical plan. That was back when there was a very high demand for competently trained carpenters. Benefits were great, and journeyman scale was $11.57 an hour. There were still a lot of steel mills operating in America then, but not so many anymore.
I suppose I'll be labeled a "hater" now too since I haven't posted in full outright support of the "only correct side, the union side". $.02
I agree with that. With that being said how does your chain of command fall. I'll give you an example my family--my friends--then everything else. Does your company call you up and make sure your family is doing ok? Do they say " hey we are doing great this quater here is an extra $1k; do something nice for your family"? C'mon of course I want my company to be safe and profitable, because hopefully that MAY trickle some down to me for my extra efforts. But as I and WE have said before a FAIR CONTRACT is what we are looking for. Nothing anywhere I have read so far states that anyone wants to be brought to their knees. Todays society dictates $4 a gallon for gas (to go to work and come home), the rising cost of power to heat our homes, food prices raising exponentially, and so forth. When these prices raise corporations raise their prices in turn the rest of the world joins the gambit.With the housing market crashing; now the slumlords raise their rents on the rentals (do you know why?) cause they can.So I ask you " WHAT IS IMPORTANT FIRST IN YOUR WORLD".
With love, Truckerman
" just keep your opinions to yourselves." THIS IS A POST FOR OPINIONS, if YOU don't like to read someone elses opinion that does not agree with you, maybe YOU SHOULDN'T READ THE COMMENTS!
So please tell us what does that exactly mean. It was asked in this thread and never explained. It is not self explanatory.
I have also not seen any hateful posts. You union workers do yourselves a disservice when you claim hate by people giving you an opinion. It pushes people away from your cause and actually makes them lose sympathy for your cause. So explain your positions to them and stop the garbage about hate.
What is the end game? When the value (demand) of product goes down and the cost (labor) of production goes up, what happens? Historically, the end game for steel production in the U.S. is that the mills shut down or get sold to a non-union company. This pattern has been repeated over and over in the last 50 years, not only in steel but many areas of the economy. It doesn't make the company a "bad" company", nor the employees "bad employees". It is just the way things work. The problem is that businesses and unions have an adversarial relationship rather than a cooperative relationship. By the time a company and labor start to cooperate the pain is past the point where the situation can be reconstructed. This situation is textbook in the way it is unfolding. It will be textbook in the results. The realistic situation is that Cascade steel does not have a corner on rebar production. If it did this wouldn't be such a tenuous position.
op91,
This wouldn't be the first time that a company desired a shutdown to clear inventory and stop the hemorrhaging. It is obvious that there is stifled demand for Cascade Steel's products. At some point it becomes senseless to keep the doors open. From what you describe, Cascade is at that point. How can a company have more restrictive labor at a time when product is in little demand? I don't know if the "end game" is close, but it is heading quickly in that direction. Will it be recognized too late? Cascade is a very small part of Schnitzer Steel. The leverage isn't there when the product has diminished value.
I understand that the work is dificult and can be dangerous. I understand also that the workers do a good job and that the state of the economy is not in their control, but how is an increase in compensation costs for a segment of the company that is losing money "fair" to the company? Isn't it the companies duty to cut costs during times when the ecomomy is laging?. Many workers both locally and across the natiion have faced the reality of reductions in wages, increased benefit costs and outright loss of jobs.... demanding that the company absorb more costs at this time doesn't seem logical to me....
Timing is everything, and it seems that negotiating with a company that is making profit would generate much more community sympathy and support for your position..
When I'd made the decision to become a union carpenter, I actually had to settle for a cut in pay, but gained through the medical benefits offered at that time. I was already a journeyman carpenter and hadn't needed a card in my wallet to prove that to anyone.
Back then, just about anything made in Japan was considered inferior compared to an American made product... re-bar included. 100 to 500 single family home housing tracts rising out of what had been a farmers pasture was not an uncommon event.
How times have changed.
You've hit the nail on the head, and between you and I, I've never thought of you as a troll (unlike some people around here) ...actually quite the contrary.
Yes, consider what has happened to the income of Oregon carpenters as the demand for their product has diminished. It isn't as though their company owners are "bad", nor their carpenter skills are gone. It is a reflection of the economy. Would it do any good for the carpenters to set up a picket line demanding more compensation?
Garr, I looked at the last 2.5 years of financials and Cascade has a net loss of a little under $3,000,000. I don't know what your definition of "in the red" is but if I worked at a company that was bleeding cash like that I'd be happy to stay employed and not show up one morning with the place shut down permanently.
some of the things that have not been mentioned as issues is some of the safety language, if you know what a 21 turn shift is than you understand. also they would like to have manditory 16 hour shifts on top of this 21 turn. that is the most unsafe work schedual out there and then they want to be able to make you stay for a double if someone else is sick. that would lead to burn out. thanks for letting me add my opinion here to this.
What would be better, eliminating some positions, paying the remaining employees more but requiring them to do more work, or being patient another year to see if things beging to get better?
I don't know the details, that is true, but from what I can tell, the people who are really supporting this strike are mostly the workers and their families/friends, and I do wish them the best of luck, but I hope they too are keeping an open mind and not just asking the company to do that.
I hope for the best outcome for the workers AND the company AND the community, I hope that no one is being selfish and everyone is being fair.
I'm not sure that the receipt of a "profit sharing" bonus on a monthly basis proves that the company made profit for the year. It sounds like your workers made a "threshold" (based on sales?, production? or profit?)during a couple months and earned you some extra dollars. That sounds like a pretty sweet deal considering what Cascade has shown in their quarterly report.
You have pegged me correctly as a management employee (but not in your industry) but I do take exception to the notion that managers feel that everyone below their position is unimportant. Most employers highly value their employees work ethic, their training and their dedication to production and quality, but unfortunately in the last few years it has been extremely difficult to reward those individuals monetarily. It's hard to tell good people that the numbers don't add up for raises or profit sharing contributions....but that is the case for the vast majority of industries.
forgotten,
I understand, and the "end game" is very realistic. The demand products from Cascade Steel has diminished considerably. Cascade Steel is a small part of Schnitzer Steel (less than 10 percent). It is difficult to increase compensation when demand for products is decreasing. I'm sure you will get the increase in compensation if there is room in the budget.
After all the posts I have read I now can say I understand. Thank you. And what you posted being the case then I to would say enough is enough.
While you make some valid points, isn't the most relevent point (For Mg't) that Cascade as a profit center is not making money? You can argue long and hard about accounting practice but the bottom line is that the Union is asking for compensation increases from the profitability of other areas of the company. If I read correctly that the workers position for wages is 3% increases for the next 2 years and 3.5% the third year. That's a big chunk of dough( $1million plus/yr?) for an unprofitable entity. I have heard other posters say it's not about money but that demand will likely be a pretty big hurdle to overcome.
One point I do agee with, I doubt Cascade would consider shutting down the mill completely, as they have too much invested in infrastructure, but until demand for product picks up (which might be awhile), they may be happy to sell off inventory and not pay wages. I hope for all of us that doesn't happen.
I do wish the workers luck in finding a satisfactory solution, but I hope reasonable discussions and mutual trust can be the guiding principles of both sides.
Thanks for the reply...one question regarding the 21 turn shift. How does a shift like that benefit the company? Does it save money or allow the company to use less employees? Additionally, I don't understand the benefit of a 16 hour shift as an employee just can't be as productive after that length of time in the saddle.
I guess at times common sense goes out the window in favor of brinksmanship.
Nick Kanig
That information was reported in the News Register by Ossie Bladine. The article has the headline "despite progress, sides still far apart"
Kona is an independent McMinnville resident with a background in business. There is no association between Kona and the mill or its management.
Steve Bagwell, Managing Editor
What's going on right now is nothing unique. I recently went through labor negotiations and can't count the number of times one of my managers came up to me telling me the latest rumors on the floor about what the company was or wasn't offering, The claims were so outlandish and false you had to laugh. More often than not it was employees who just liked to stir the pot. I would strongly recommend you only get your information directly from those who are sitting at the bargaining table. It's amazing how information changes after it's passed through a few different people.
I was unable to find the article on the page you linked but I don't doubt your findings. The thing that people don't understand is being a part of Shnitzer makes us different from other companies that are a single entity. Cascade itself my not have made a profit from selling its product, but we made a profit for Shnitzer in other ways - which wouldn't show as profit for Cascade Steel.
Lets not forget what this strike is all about. It's not about Cascade Steel making a profit or not. It's not about the Union wanting more wages. It is an Unfair Labor Practices Strike. If it was just about trying to hash out a good deal that both Company and Union could live with, we would still be working while they hash away. We are on strike because the company has failed to negotiate in good faith.
I'm a little confused....what negative comments have I posted?
So if I ask you to look at the issues from a business perspective (profit and loss) then I am to stupid to understand the situation? Could you be any more condesending? If you are unwilling to accept the reality of today's economic climate in America and the fact that demand is down from previous times, then I submit that it is You that doesn't have a full understanding of the situation. Is the recession our economy is now recovering from a lie?
As far as being "right and wrong" on issues...I don't think it comes down to that. Seems to me that the contract disagreements will be resolved by compromise and cooperation between the two parties.. Neither side is 100% right or wrong and if either party claims that they are, then this will be a very long strike indeed!
If I have come across condescending; I apologize! With current situations you may taken the blunt for the other criticisms that may have been afforded. Again I apologize.
Lets just get a bunch of things straight. You say its about mutual considerations (i.e. cooperation and compromise). The steelworkers forgave a 3.5% cola in 2011 to show the good faith in the company (I have this in first hand knowledge). Do you know what they did with that approximately $600k? I tell you! They gave it to the managers as an pay increase; then purchased a hole lotta safety banners and rugs (is spending the money like that a good show of faith?). Then one year later when a contract is to be negotiated; what did the steelworkers get. They got refusal to bargain, bargaining in bad faith and what not.
I'm sure you understand the frusteration when the people refer to the steelworkers as greedy, whiny, or even ungrateful. The steelworkers showed their concerned for the present economic times, but in return received nothing but ridicule and spite.
I believe all the steelworkers respect and care for their positions, But hey we all go to work to make a living and that constitutes Money. With in turn safety and happiness play a essential part too. There is alot people are unaware in this whole proceeding, and when its over people with find something else to attack.
Again I apologize. But for these steelworkers its their way of life and I fully support them.