I have read the letter posted for our 602 brothers and sisters. I find the writing curious.
The leadership does use some facts to present their case but again they fall short of full disclosure. They never mention the $1.00 offer by the contractors with renegotiations in years 2 and 3. The offer you never fully laid out for our brothers and sisters before you had it shouted down because you did not want arbitration. Oh wait, it did not contain arbitration, it was tied to the IRC (see the contractors letter you received for an explanation of the IRC). Forgot that did you?
Then, you talk of the plumbers and how you are “reluctant to criticize the Plumbers in any way. They are our UA brothers and we wish them well.” Then you go on to say “It is also common knowledge (it isn’t), as admitted by the MCA negotiators (they didn’t), that for various reasons the profit margins on plumbing jobs are razor slim. But we are not Plumbers. Far from it.” Sounds to me you just slammed the plumbers, our UA brothers, yet again. In addition, I doubt you heard the MCA Negotiating Team state “the profit margins on plumbing jobs are razor slim” since three of the negotiators bid full mechanical jobs and don’t break out plumbing separately and would therefore have the same slim margins on HVAC work. The fourth member does not do plumbing work. You have again either misunderstood or are attempting to spin language to suit your need.
You go on to cite other locals whose fitters make more than the plumbers but you neglected to give specific locals. I know from attending MSCA conferences that the UA representatives have talked about locals whose wage for service techs is below that of the pipefitter. Should we compare 602 service techs to those locals? I think not. You only want to look at a very narrow group of statistics because only the narrowest group supports your position. You want to compare yourselves to other locals yet you don’t want other local officials to help resolve this dispute.
It is interesting the spin you put on your actions. You honestly believe that you have been flexible while the contractors have not. You believe that good faith negotiations include raising your offer once it was made with no other changes in your offer? The contractors did lower their offer of $1.00 down to $.95 in the first year and $.55 in the second year when you made them remove the idea of resolving the impasse by using the IRC. At least when they went backwards on an offer it was because something else in the offer had changed. The IRC had value. Your backwards move had NO OTHER CHANGE in the offer. You just went up. No facts, no figures, no reason, just an increase in the offer.
You believe filing papers with the NLRB showed continued support for the process? Those elections are intended for organizing non-union companies. Who is surprised that you won overwhelmingly? 100% of the votes are cast by our union brothers and sisters. How hard was that to win? What is sad is that we did not get 100% of all votes cast voting for unionization. Even a small percent voting against being represented by the organization that represents them is disturbing.
You instituted one day spot strikes to show the MCA how serious this was. I understand from one contractor that his employees were heckled by passersby, saying that all they wanted was a job and you are striking for more money? I don’t think there will be much sympathy for striking workers who are striking for MORE wages when so many just want to work. Especially when they find out you were offered a raise greater than the cost of living increase.
Then, you tout your “unprecedented step to pre‐ratify” a contract offer that was nothing like what you discussed with the contractors, and was against the advice of the contractors. Now you have boxed yourselves in a corner. The contractors cannot accept such actions because it sets a precedent that would change the negotiations forever. Legally it may be inside the bounds of bargaining in good faith but do you truly believe it is bargaining at all. Having your body vote on an offer not presented by the contractors is one sided bargaining. It takes two sides to bargain effectively.
You say you did this because “Faced with continual carping from the employers that prior contracts had been turned down by the membership”. I believe the negotiating committee was probably complaining about believing they had an agreement with the union committee only to find out that members of the committee changed their minds and didn’t support what they previously had given their word to support. The membership has the right to vote up or down. It would be nice if they got that chance in a secret ballot to vote for one of the contractors proposals. You might be surprised. Our brothers and sisters are more up on the economy than you are apparently.
Your closing remarks are the most curious of all your remarks. You claim “Expect dirty tricks, intimidation, threats and every ploy imaginable by the contractors to try to break your resolve. They cannot help themselves.” I believe the only intimidation and threats have come from your president and members of the union against other union members. Can you name one contractor that has done any of what you accuse?
Stop the hype and lets get this done with what is actually needed for the funds and get everyone working!!!
5 comments:
Let’s Not Kid One Another
Unless you have been asleep at the wheel you already know that 602 has presented “Interim Agreements” to the MCA Contractors giving them an ultimatum to sign or prepare for a strike. This interim agreement is based on what we pre-ratified at our October 6th meeting and ignores the last four months of negotiations.
Many small contractors will sign this agreement out of duress – but I have heard most contractors have said they will not. According to our Union Officers, beginning this week those who have not signed will be struck. Obviously this is a problem for ALL of us from my perspective!! So the question now is where do we go from here and what happens next?
While there is no way to predict the results of all the emotions and egos involved, before offering my view I say we look at some facts. Not opinions, because everyone has one, let’s just look at what we can see with our own eyes.
On the “602 Facebook Wall”, one of our brothers said “enough of the non union scare … we damn near double the local since the late 80’s”. This may be true but look at the area around us. I don’t remember traffic on the beltway like this back in the 80’s. Hell, traffic on a Saturday is worse now than it was during rush hour back then. The DC area has probably quadrupled since then while we only doubled in size. I was around since the 70’s and can say the threat of non-union contractors in our market in those days was minimal at best. We had some ex-union contractors like Harvey Hottel pestering us but most of the non-union companies were residential contractors. The sad part is we let them grow and multiply because we were “above” doing the kind of work they do. However, since that time they have evolved and today they are appearing on our jobs everywhere you look. And the work that Tyler Mechanical, Shapiro & Duncan, Cranston and a host of others are turning out should be scaring the hell out of us as it is not the inferior quality it once was!! If their work was as bad as we have been told these guys would be out of business instead of flourishing and stealing work from us! Open your eyes Brothers & Sisters – we are NOT the only game in town anymore!!
I’d also say to take a hard look around you as you drive around town. Notice all the construction trailers, signs, cranes, bulldozers and other heavy construction equipment you see. There are a lot but if you look a little harder you’ll see it is mostly being used for roadwork and bridge construction. I don’t see many foundations coming out of the ground compared to what I saw just a few years ago when work was abundant. The government is spending more money (our money) to stimulate the economy but for the most part private industry is holding on to their cash, which means they aren’t employing us, or anyone for that matter.
Let’s Not Kid One Another (part two)
And when you’re driving around look at the service vehicles you see on the road. Back in the 80’s most all of them were union contractors but today I see as many, if not more, non-union companies with many names I don’t recognize. A great deal of these vehicles belong to ex-union members who are now trying it on their own … as non-union competitors. And why would anyone think that these guys aren’t as qualified as we are. They received the same training we did and most were our best people just a few years ago!!
Now let’s do a little more math. The Union voted to move $500,000 from the general fund to a strike fund. That’s super!! But if all of our 3,300 members went on strike this would carry us only ONE WEEK paying out $150 per person. A far cry from the $800-1200 most of us are accustomed to bringing home. A one week strike isn’t going to do much of anything to the contractors other than aggravate them. Of course the contractors may lose some jobs or customers, but who does that really hurt?? Think about it! Of course all of us aren’t going to go on strike so let’s assume that half of us do and half don’t. This will either boost our one week pay to a whopping $300 or we can get two weeks at the full $150/wk. I don’t know about you but the bank has already foreclosed on one of my neighbors down the street who fell behind and personally I don’t need another blemish on my credit report. And the 50% who continue to work will contribute their $2/hr to the strike fund and if each of them work a full 40 hours (since we aren’t supposed to work overtime) that will equate to adding another $132,000 per week, which isn’t squat from what I can tell. I think we’re being sold down the river here!
Worst yet, let’s talk about our ailing pension and medical funds. The contractors pay $15.60/hr in benefits for every journeyman hour worked. From all I have gathered most of the contractors have continued to pay these benefits even though we have told them we don’t have a contract. I think it is safe to say that if we strike, this ‘olive branch’ will could be withdrawn. At $15.60 X 40 hrs/week X 3,300 members this equals more than $2,000,000 per week into our already ailing health and pension funds. I’m sorry but not much of the approach our leadership is taking on our behalf is making sense to me.
And just last Friday the Department of Labor reported that in September another 95,000 jobs were lost. One of the headlines read “The jobless rate has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s”. That’s real scary!! Our Union leaders keep touting how well we are doing and how we are not being affected by the negative economy … but who are they kidding? I know we have a lot of people on the bench now when two years ago there were only the same people who are always there. Just because we have been fortunate doesn’t mean we are invincible. I think most of us who have a job would gladly forgo a raise right now as long as we can continue to work through this mess. I say let’s wait to strike once it is over!
Sorry I got so long winded but this is the end
We need to give what we are about to do a lot of thought before we start acting like lemmings following one another over the edge of the cliff. Those without mortgage and car payments don’t mind going on strike. It’s a vacation to them. But to those of us who have obligations losing a week, or two, or three of wages will really hurt and it will take over a year just to catch up. And trying to hurt the contractors so they realize we’re sincere, knowing in advance the work they might lose will mean less jobs for us, just doesn’t make sense to me. Let’s give this a lot of thought before following the others over the cliff.
Now one more very important question I need to ask. I have heard what the contractors have offered. Why hasn’t their offer been brought to the floor for a vote?? I have spoken to a lot of others and we agree something just doesn’t seem quite kosher here. And when I think about it, when we go on strike do the Union Officers still get a paycheck???? Will they be marching out in the cold or rain with us if this goes on for a while?? Will they have a job when this is all over? This reminds me of those in Congress who voted for Obamacare knowing it doesn’t pertain to them because they have their own special health plans!!
We have a lot to think about and I’m not certain we’re not just kidding ourselves!
I hope all of this is being posted somewhere, where all the Steamfitter's especially the one's on facebook can see this.
All I can see is that the President of 602 is inciting everyone not trying to reassure there will be a resolution of some kind by them and the contractors working together. My father is retired 602 member and he retired from owning a business and he and his partners worked hard plus they were very fair to their employees. He told me he has seen both sides of the coin because he started out as a worker. Plus I have my husband who has almost 25 yrs in with 602. We are not happy with what is going on currently and it does no good to voice a opinion on face book steamfitter's because it just gets shot down. Anyone who is not on their side is a turn coat and they don't care about the well fare of their brother's and sister's as they say. They are only looking out for number one! Thank god they had the ability to save their money up for this kinda of thing and SHAME on others that are working paycheck to paycheck to support their families and haven't been able to save doing so. While they are living it up, us honest workers will be hurting! I just felt I needed to get some of this out and boy do I have more.
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