Bernie Sanders in Burlington: Corporations 'are stuck with an addiction called greed'
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was in Burlington Friday to lend his voice to striking workers.
He spoke at the Crapo Park Bandshell before a crowd of UAW Local 807 members who, as of Friday, had been on strike against Case New Holland Industrial for 46 days.
"Not only am I happy to be here, I am honored to be here, because you are showing this country you have the courage, you have the guts to stand up to ugly corporate greed," Sanders said.
Also present were a handful of UAW members from Ankeny who in November signed a contract with John Deere following a 35-day strike, and the Independent from Vermont commended the workers for their efforts.
"What we are seeing not only with this company but companies all across this country is something unbelievable," Sanders said. "It is called the culture of greed, and all of us know folks who are suffering with addiction, whether it's drugs, alcohol, tobacco, people can't get rid of the addiction. These bastards are stuck with an addiction called greed. It never ends. They want more and more and more and it."
Sanders went on to talk about income and wealth inequality in America, pointing out that two people own more wealth than the bottom 40% of American society, or about 130 million people.
"It's disgusting, isn't it," someone shouted from the crowd.
"One-hundred thirty million people, and these two people and their friends think that's not enough," Sanders continued. "They want more and more and more, and today in America, we have the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 92%."
Sanders praised essential workers who risked their health during the pandemic as they continued to go to work in grocery stores, public transportation, warehouses, and factories to keep the economy going.
"During that same period, literally speaking, the billionaire class saw a $2 trillion increase in their wealth," Sanders said. "Workers go to work. They have no choice. They've got to bring home a paycheck. The billionaire class, $2 trillion richer."
Case saw record profits of $1.7 billion in 2021. Its proposals to workers at its union plants in Burlington and Racine, Wisconsin, have included raises of up to 18% over a three-year period for some workers, but with insurance options that are far more costly than the plan workers had under the contract that expired April 30.
Sanders said corporate greed not only is evidenced by nationwide unionization efforts, including Starbucks and Amazon, as workers increasingly seek better work conditions and pay, but also in the prices of gas and food.
"Gas in Vermont is $5 a gallon. It's more expensive here, but I want you all to know that as gas prices sore, the major oil companies in this country last quarter saw $90 billion in profit, so they're jacking up the price of gas, taking advantage of the breakdown of supply chains, taking advantage of the war in Ukraine and they're ripping off the American people," he said. "Same thing with food. Major food companies, profits are soaring while prices at the grocery store are going up."
Sanders went on to speak of concentration of ownership that enables billionaires to "buy" politicians on both side of the aisle. He pointed to BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, three Wall Street firms that Sanders said control $20 trillion in assets, "which is equivalent to the entire GDP of the United States."
"Three companies control hundreds and hundreds of companies throughout our country and the world," Sanders said.
Sanders called out Case as another example of the power of the ultra-rich — owned by the Agnelli family, an Italian multi-industry business dynasty.
The Agnelli family owns Exor, a Dutch holding company incorporated in the Netherlands that owns a controlling stake in Case New Holland.
Sanders described the family's net worth as between $17 and $19 billion; 2019 estimates put that number at $13.9 billion.
"But it's not only income inequality and concentration of ownership," Sanders said. "You've got a corrupt political system through which these billionaires buy politicians in both political parties.
"So what are we going to do? What we're going to do is exactly what you are doing.
"What we are talking about on one hand is a company making huge profits and which is owned by one of the wealthiest families in the world — the Agnelli family and on the other side, we are talking about workers who are regularly working 12-hour days and nearly 60-hour weeks, workers who are being asked to work up to 17 hours a week of forced overtime."
Case workers have set schedules of 10-hour days, four days a week, but the company can require up to two hours of overtime on any or all of those four days, as well as an additional nine on Fridays. Workers also must use their limited vacation time during the company's summer shutdown.
Now, their jobs are being done by replacement workers who union members have said first arrived at the plant May 3.
"CNH has unacceptably hired replacement workers, and I know here in Iowa, you have another word for that, called scabs," Sanders said to cheers. "And they hired these workers even before the strike started."
Those workers, he said, are replacing those who have put their health at risk by working throughout the pandemic and sacrificed time with their loved ones.
"And yet, despite the incredible sacrifices at CNH, what has been the response of executives at the company?" Sanders asked. "What they are offering, as I understand it, is a totally inadequate and insulting contract that would force workers individually to pay up to $6,400 deductible for insurance, and a family up to $13,000.
"If you have that situation, you have no health insurance, because it means that when you get sick, you aren't feeling well, everything up to that $13,000 is going to have to come out of your own pocket, and that is beyond belief to me."
Sanders also criticized the company's proposed wage increase.
"They are offering, as I understand it, a so-called raise of just $1.33 an hour for the lowest paid workers, which would in reality amount to a substantial pay cut after adjusting for inflation and massive new costs for healthcare," he said.
Sanders further criticized Case New Holland CEO Scott Wine's $9.2 million sign-on bonus and nearly $22 million compensation for one year of work, as well as the more than $100 million spent by the company on stock buy-backs over a six-month period.
"Today, we say to the management of CNH, enough with the intimidation ... enough with the greed," Sanders said. "We say to the management, go back to the negotiating table, negotiate in good faith with the union, stop bringing in replacement workers, give back the health insurance benefits that you took away and offer your employees a contract that is fair and is just."
He went on to tell the crowd that the strike is about more than getting a decent contract.
"It's also about human decency," he said. "That's what this is really about.
"What I want to tell you as somebody who's been all over this country is that working people are sick and tired of what is going on this country," Sanders said. "You guys, I know you're here in Burlington, Iowa, it's a small town, but the country looks at you and is proud for having the courage to stand up and tell these greedy corporate leaders that you cannot trample on the rights of those of us who come from the working class, that we are human beings, too, that our kids are human beings, our parents are human beings, we are the people who made this country and our job is not to make billionaires richer.
"It is to create a nation that works for all of our people."
Union members emphasize importance of solidarity
Prior to Sanders' speech, attendees of the town hall event heard from UAW Local 807 committee member Tracy Chew, who delivered an impassioned speech to her co-workers.
"Solidarity wasn't really a big issue in the plant until we had to go out with each other and do this thing we call a strike," Chew said. "Our solidarity, as you can tell today, is through the frickin' roof."
Chew referenced the UAW International's recent vote to increase weekly strike pay from $275 to $400, but still advised that strikers get a part-time job to make it through a potential "long haul." She also told them not to be intimidated by temporary workers they encounter on the line or while working those part-time jobs, as she and her daughter have.
"Continue to show your faces on the line, continue to stand with your heads straight up out in the public when you see these other people," she said. "I know myself, my daughter, we all have part-time jobs. We have to see these scabs every once in awhile. We have to see them. This is a small town and we ain't going nowhere."
Drew Thomas of Ankeny-based UAW Local 450 said the Local 807 has plenty of support from the 450.
"I will stand with you guys now matter what," he said, referring to the union's successful contract negotiations that ended the five-week strike. "I know they say we set the bar, but no, you guys are going to set the bar."
Neely Turner, also visiting from Ankeny, voiced her support as well and encouraged the strikers to lean on each other in times of need.
"If you all work together and pitch in together, you'll get through this," she said. "That is the only thing that will get you through it."
A look back at the strike to date
Sanders announced his planned visit June 10, days after he and U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), sent a letter to CNHi CEO Scott Wine urging the company to negotiate a fair contract with its about 1,000 workers in Burlington and Racine, Wisconsin.
Iowa U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst have not spoken publicly about the strike.
The letter also denounced a proposal put forward by the construction and agriculture equipment manufacturer on May 19.
The company previously defended that proposal in a statement issued May 23.
"After meeting multiples times on Tuesday (May 17) and Wednesday (May 18), the Company presented the Union with an all-encompassing, comprehensive document, which addressed all open and outstanding issues," the company said in an email sent to The Hawk Eye. "Unfortunately, the Union declined to meet or allow the Company to present and explain its position and proposal and indicated that they would not allow their members to see the proposal. The Union then left and discontinued bargaining. While the Union indicated that they were ready to resume the negotiations at the beginning of the week, we were very disappointed in their decision to walk away."
The company has not responded to multiple requests for comment from The Hawk Eye since the letter was sent to Wine.
That offer included pay raises that, according to UAW Local 807 President Nick Guernsey, do not account for inflation and largely would be wiped out by pricier health insurance plans carrying individual deductibles of up to $6,400.
Earlier this week: UAW, Case New Holland return to negotiation table ahead of visit from Bernie Sanders
UAW and Case representatives resumed negotiations on Tuesday in Madison, Wisconsin, but those talks ended abruptly after the company put forward a proposal largely unchanged from the previous one, save for a 0.5% increase in the third contract year.
More: 'A wasted trip': United Auto Workers and Case New Holland walk away after one day of negotiations
The union declined to put that proposal to vote in favor of continuing to push for parity pay with the company's non-unionized plants, plus 10%. Starting pay for assemblers at Case's Burlington now is $20.83 per hour. According to previous UAW estimates, Guernsey said, the company's non-union plants pay about $5.50 per hour more than the union plants in Burlington and Racine, but the company still has not provided information about pay at other plants to the UAW.
Also included in the union's proposal are raises for its members in the third and fifth year of a six-year contract, as well as lump-sim bonuses and company relief on wage structure in non-raise years.
"They said there was no more money," UAW Local 807 bargaining chairman Mike Edwards said. "They're lying."
Earlier Friday, Sanders hosted a town hall in support of the Racine plant's about 600 UAW Local 180 members.
Unionized Case workers at the Iowa and Wisconsin plants have been on strike since May 2 after the UAW and the company failed to reach an agreement on a new contract to replace the one that expired April 30.
Michaele Niehaus covers business, development, environment and agriculture for The Hawk Eye. She can be reached at mniehaus@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Bernie Sanders supports United Auto Workers in Burlington at town hall
