Strike continues: CNH union voters reject company proposal
CNH Industrial workers will remain on strike after union members in Mount Pleasant and Burlington, Iowa, voted against a contract proposal from the company on Saturday.
More than 1,000 workers across both states have been on strike since May 2022 but the vote on Saturday was the first time the membership voted on a proposal during the strike. The company makes construction equipment and agricultural machinery.
About 55% of the voting members rejected the proposal with 45% voting in favor.
In Iowa, there are roughly 400 members on strike, and the proposal passed there. But the 700 striking members in Mount Pleasant voted against the deal.
“The members spoke and now we got to find a path forward with the company,” said Nick Guernsey, president of United Auto Workers Local 807 in Burlington. “It took eight months for our members to finally have their voices heard.”
In Racine County, members filed into an auditorium at Starbuck Middle School to hear union leaders outline the provisions of the contract.
After the presentation, the members were mostly quiet.
“I was shocked. I thought they’d want to have a little more conversation,” said Rich Glowacki, chairman of the bargaining committee for UAW Local 180 in Mount Pleasant. “I opened the floor to questions. I had probably about a half dozen questions asked of me and after that, there was no more questions, so I opened the polls up to voting.”
Glowacki said the members were “not in a happy place.”
“I didn’t have to say anything bad about the proposal, the proposal spoke for itself,” Glowacki said. “They’re not happy. They feel betrayed. They feel the company should be compensating them better, the benefits should be better, the health insurance needs to be better.”
In a statement, CNH Industrial said it is “disappointed to learn that its recently negotiated and improved last, best and final offer was not approved in the ratification vote conducted by the union.”
“This offer for a new contract, which included wage increases of 25% to 38% over the four years, would have allowed the employees and the company to move forward at the company’s plants in Burlington, Iowa, and Racine, Wisconsin,” according to the statement. “The company strongly encourages the union to allow the employees to reconsider their position in another vote so that the employees can return to work. While we await the union’s next step, CNH Industrial remains committed to honoring and meeting the needs and demands of our customers and, therefore, we will continue operations at both our Burlington and Racine sites.”
Workers feel 'disheartened'
Since May, the facilities in Wisconsin and Iowa have been staffed with temporary workers to continue production. During this time, union members have been put in the difficult decision of having to decide to remain on strike or get another job.
Last fall, CNH Industrial placed an ad in The Journal Times in Racine with some details of a last, best and final offer. Through negotiations, the company “upgraded” the offer but it was still rejected.
“Even though those things were slightly improved, they still were not at what the membership demanded,” Yasin Mahdi, president of UAW Local 180, said. “Eight months is a long time for something that could have been resolved a long time ago.”
Mahdi said members feel “disheartened” by the actions of the company.
“They’re paying their non-union (employees) $27 per hour, today,” Mahdi said. “I don’t know what the problem is with paying us the same thing.”
Officials with both locals plan to meet with their members to get more details on how they want to proceed before meeting with company officials.
“The company has some work to do ahead of them, there’s no doubt about it. We do too,” Glowacki said. “I’m not saying this is a one-party deal. Both parties have to work together to try to come to an agreement that we can live with.”
During the strike, the workers have gotten the support of elected officials like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and members of the Wisconsin labor community and beyond.
“We had locals coming in from all over the country, it wasn’t just Wisconsin locals,” Glowacki said. “But the overall support of the labor community as well as the community at large, in my mind, has been unbelievable. We’re constantly getting words of encouragement to hold the line and make sure we fight for what we feel we deserve.”
Until a deal is approved, the strike is going to continue.
“I truly hope the company sees what happened (Saturday) and that they really come to the table with some viable solutions,” Mahdi said. “They have a (shareholder) meeting coming up at the end of this month with the fourth quarter results and the fiscal year 2022 results, and I’m sure that the shareholders do not want to hear about these two facilities still on strike.”
“And, as we all know, springtime is when farmers need their equipment.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Strike continues: CNH union voters reject company proposal
