Bargaining and Strikes 7-24 (web).pdf - Valero

Bargaining Can Be Risky
No One Can Predict What Would Happen
In Negotiations
Everything You Currently Have
Is Subject To Negotiation
An Employer Is Under No Legal Obligation
To Agree To A Union’s Proposals
Employees Can Wind Up With Less Than
They Had Before Negotiations
The Only Real Leverage A Union Has When
Negotiations Fail? . . . A Strike
Strikes Hurt Everyone!
July
2009

Since the USW began its attempt to organize our Texas City
employees, a number of questions have been asked about how
unions operate and what, if anything, is to be expected of its
membership.
To assist you in deciding whether you want to bring the USW
into your working lives, we are providing this booklet designed to
provide short, truthful answers about the risks associated with the
collective bargaining process and what happens when contract
negotiations stall and the union calls its members out on strike.
We encourage you to discuss these issues with your fellow
employees, your supervisor, and/or an H.R. representative.

THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROCESS
1. Question:
Answer:
When a union gets voted into an operation, what is
the company required to do?
The company would have to bargain with the
union. That means it would talk (“negotiate”) in
good faith with the union representatives about
money, benefits, etc.
2. Question:
Answer:
What does “bargaining” mean?
In bargaining, one side asks and the other side
answers. The answer could be “yes” or “no.”
3. Question:
Answer:
Does that mean that a company can say “no” to a
union request?
Yes. A company is under no obligation to agree to
something that it doesn’t want or doesn’t think is
good for the company.
4. Question:
Answer:
Would employees automatically get a contract with
improved pay and benefits if they vote in the
USW?
No. When a union becomes the collective
bargaining representative for employees at a
company, it simply gains the right to ask the
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company for better pay and benefits. Three things
could happen as a result of good-faith
bargaining—pay and benefits could be improved,
be reduced, or stay the same. In one well-known
case, the National Labor Relations Board
explained the risks associated with the collective
bargaining process:
“Collective bargaining is potentially
hazardous for employees and that as a result
of such negotiations, employees might
possibly wind up with less . . . .” [Coach and
Equipment Sales Corp., 228 NLRB 440, 441.]
This is exactly what happened at Bridgestone
Firestone two years ago where the USW negotiated
a contract calling for a 17 percent pay cut for new
hires and more employee contributions to the cost
of health care insurance. Here’s a copy of the
article from the Bureau of National Affairs
reporting the contract:
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5. Question:
Answer:
You mean a union can’t automatically get
employees the things the union organizers had
promised?
That’s right. The company does not have to make
a union’s promises come true. In fact, under the
law, a company is not even obligated, under some
conditions, to agree to continue presently existing
wages or benefits:
“There is, of course, no obligation on the
part of an employer to contract to continue
all existing benefits, nor is it an unfair
labor practice to offer reduced benefits.”
[Midwestern Instruments, Inc., 133 NLRB 1132, 1138]
6. Question:
Answer:
The union organizers are telling us that with the
union, we’ll get everything we have now, plus
more, and no dues until then. Is this true?
Regardless of what the organizers may have told
you, collective bargaining on a union contract
does not start from a guaranteed base of the
present wages and benefits. All present wages
and benefits are as much a subject of negotiations
as are demands for additional wages and benefits.
It is not unusual for a union to wind up trading
existing employees’ benefits for union benefits,
such as automatic checkoff of dues.
7. Question:
Answer:
What is “dues checkoff”?
When a union wins an election and attempts to
negotiate a contract, one of the most important
parts of the contract to the union is the “dues
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checkoff” clause. A checkoff clause allows the
union to receive dues money directly out of its
members’ paychecks without their members ever
seeing the money. It’s just like another tax
withholding. The members’ paystubs would show
an automatic deduction for federal taxes, a
deduction for state taxes, and another deduction
for union dues. Here’s a sample USW checkoff
clause:
ARTICLE 4
CHECK-OFF
4.1 The Company agrees to collect Union dues with a monthly payroll
deduction and remit promptly to the International
Secretary/Treasurer of the United Steelworkers of America, at a
place designated by the International Treasurer, dues and initiation
fees uniformly required of all Union members as designated
by the International Treasurer of the Union, for all employees
within the appropriate unit who voluntarily execute “an authorization
for check-off dues” and cause it to be placed in the hands of
the Company. The Company agrees to submit each month to the
Union a Union Dues Deduction Listing showing name, clock
number, and amount of monthly dues paid.
Importantly, a union does not have an automatic
right to get a dues checkoff clause included in a
negotiated contract. So, in order to get a company
to agree to dues checkoff, the union often must
give up something that workers already have.
8. Question:
Answer:
How long does it take to negotiate a contract if a
union wins an election?
Good-faith negotiations between a company and a
union can take months or even years, and there is
no guarantee that an agreement will ever be
reached through good-faith negotiations.
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9. Question:
Answer:
Can a company give its employees wage and
benefit increases during contract negotiations
between the company and a union?
No. During the period of negotiations, a company
cannot unilaterally grant employees wage and
benefit improvements, even if those improvements
are granted to nonunion employees at its other
facilities. [NLRB v. Fitzgerald Mills Corp., 313 F.2d 260 (2d Cir.)]
10.
Question:
With respect to the collective bargaining process,
who has the final word regarding acceptance or
rejection of a contract, the members who come
under the contract . . . or the union?
Answer:
The USW International Union in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, has the final say. Article XVII,
Section 1, of the USW Constitution states:
“The International Union shall be the
contracting party in all collective
bargaining agreements and all such
agreements shall be signed by the
International Officers.”
11. Question:
What can happen when a company and union
cannot agree on a contract?
Answer:
When a company refuses to give in to
unreasonable union demands, the only real
leverage a union has is to call its members out on
strike.
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UNION STRIKES
12.
Question:
Answer:
Could the USW call us out on strike?
Yes. The USW has called more strikes than most
other unions. In fact, since 1999, the USW has
called 299 strikes involving tens of thousands
of workers. (Source: Labor Relations Institute.)
The Labor Relations Institute (LRI) publishes a
monthly newsletter, Labor Relations Ink, which
includes “Union Scoreboard,” providing the most
current strike statistics published by the National
Labor Relations Board. A copy of LRI’s June 2009
edition of Union Scoreboard is shown below:
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Most telling in this “Union Scoreboard” is the fact
that only one union—the infamous Teamsters—
currently has more strikes going on nationwide
than the USW.
13. Question:
Answer:
Does the USW have a history of strikes in Texas
and our adjoining states?
Yes. As indicated in the map below, the USW has
had 23 separate strikes in Texas and adjoining
states in just the past 20 years.
14. Question:
Will a union financially support its striking
members during one of their strikes?
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Answer:
The USW has a “strike fund” that pays out $100 -
$175 per week depending on the Local’s dues
structure. That’s certainly not enough to pay the
mortgage, car payment, and put food on the table.
Strikers also have to “walk to eat,” meaning those
who do receive strike benefits are required to walk
the picket line.
15. Question:
Answer:
When the USW calls a strike, do all affected
members have the choice of striking or continuing
to work during the strike to support their families?
No. Article XXIII, Section 1B3(i), of the USW
Local 13-1 By-laws specifically states that
members shall be subject to discipline for
“crossing a picket line sanctioned by the
International Union or the Local Union in which the
member holds . . . his/her membership.”
16. Question:
What does that mean—disciplined for crossing a
USW picket line?
Answer:
If the union believes you have broken one of its
rules, like crossing one of its picket lines to work
during a strike, it can bring charges against you,
and you can be tried by a union tribunal. Here’s
the provision in the USW Constitution allowing for
members to be tried:
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17. Question:
Answer:
What happens if a member is found guilty of
crossing a picket line and working during a USW
strike?
You can be fined!
18. Question:
Answer:
How much can a member be fined?
There’s no limit. Neither the USW Constitution nor
the Local 13-1 By-laws set a cap on the amount a
member could be fined. When a member crosses
a picket line to work during a strike, unions often
fine the individual an amount equivalent to how
much the member earned during the time he/she
was working rather than striking. It could be
thousands of dollars!
As an example, three USW members of Local 2 in
Akron, Ohio, were recently each fined $625 when
they crossed a USW picket line to work during a
strike. Another union member, Barbara Williams,
was fined $2,500 by her union when she refused to
walk off her job during a strike. Another union
member, James Patterson, crossed his union’s
picket line and worked during a 50-week strike. He
was fined $40,000.
Several years ago, the Teamsters fined over 70 of
its members from $200 to $13,000 per member
when they refused to walk off their job in support
of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union
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strike against several grocery chains. All totaled,
the assessed fines exceeded $120,000. (See
Attachment A.)
19. Question:
Answer:
What happens to employees who choose to
support a union strike by refusing to cross a picket
line?
Strikers . . .
• Lose their wages;
• Cannot collect unemployment compensation while
staying out of work on strike;
• Must pay full premium if choose to continue medical
benefits; and
• Can be permanently replaced in strikes over union
economic demands.
20. Question:
What do you mean strikers can be “permanently
replaced”?
Answer:
By law, companies have a legal right to continue
operating during a strike by hiring permanent
replacements. When the union finally calls off the
strike, the strikers do not have an automatic right
to their job after the strike if they are permanently
replaced. Permanently replaced strikers can only
ask for a job back and wait around hoping for a
vacancy to occur in some job they can perform.
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21. Question:
Answer:
Can peaceful strike picketing erupt into violent
confrontations?
Yes. Unfortunately, when strike activity occurs, it
is often accompanied by violence. During the
USW strike at AK Steel in Mansfield, Ohio, for
example, angry mobs of strikers attacked convoys
bringing in replacement workers. Explosive
devices were found hidden on company property.
The fuses had been lit, but failed to ignite. Molotov
cocktails were placed beside oxygen-hauling
trucks. Pipe bombs were thrown into the plant and
exploded. Explosive devises were also placed in
the home mailboxes of numerous salaried AK
Steel employees. One company truck driver was
hospitalized after a bomb was thrown at his truck.
(See Attachment B, Testimony before U.S. House of
Representatives Subcommittee investigating workplace violence.)
22. Question:
Answer:
How long do strikes last?
Strikes can last a short period of time . . . or drag
on for months or years. For example:
• The USW strike at Mansfield Plumbing Products in
Kilgore, Texas, lasted 26 weeks.
• The USW strike at Rocky Mountain Steel Mill in Pueblo,
Colorado, lasted 6 years, 3 months, and 11 days.
• The USW strike at Speedrack in Hamilton, Alabama,
lasted 20 months, and many of the strikers could not
immediately reclaim their old jobs because they had
been filled with permanent replacements.
• The USW strike at Aitkin Iron Works in Aitkin, Minnesota,
in 2004 lasted 5½ months.
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23. Question:
Answer:
Can a strike affect job security?
Absolutely. Strikes occasionally result in
permanent shutdowns because the struck
company loses part of its market share during the
strike to its more reliable competitors.
24. Question:
Answer:
How much could a USW strike cost Valero-Texas
City employees?
Depending on your hourly pay rate, you could
stand to lose many thousands of dollars if the
USW called a strike at our Texas City operation.
For example, the 2005 USW strike at Cooper Tire &
Rubber in Texarkana, Arkansas, lasted
21 workdays. The recent USW strike at Gerdau
Ameristeel in Vidor, Texas, lasted 137 workdays,
and the USW strike at Speedrack in Hamilton,
Alabama, lasted 20 months. Shown below is a
“Strike Cost Calculator” chart, which gives you an
idea how costly a union strike can become:
*Calculated based on a 40-hour workweek with no overtime.
Please see your supervisor or an H.R. representative if you have any questions
about this collective bargaining and strike information.
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