On 8 December 2011, the company issued an update to its fourth quarter outlook, warning that it expected the strike, corresponding layoffs and contingency plans to negatively impact crane sales and operating earnings by $10m. At the same time, the company said, recently identified supplier delivery issues with certain hydraulic components would delay delivery of some cranes into the first quarter of 2012, negatively impacting sales and operating earnings by an additional $35m.
For more than a year, politics in Wisconsin has been dominated by a party conflict between ‘business-focused’ Republican Governor Scott Walker and a coalition of union-supporting Democratic and progressive opponents. With the Governor’s support from libertarian-leaning Koch brothers, the conflict has become symbolic of pre-election-year politics on the federal level.
Currently, local democrats are attempting to recall the Governor, as well as a number of republican Wisconsin senators. Republicans barely held on to the State Senate after a round of recall elections this year.
One of the bones of contention between unions and the governor has been his intention to remove or reduce their influence in the public sector. The striking Manitowoc workers, members of IAM (International Association of Machinists) Local 516, link the dispute to local politics, saying, “[Manitowoc’s] final proposal included optional union membership and no dues check-off. This is the private sector equivalent of what Republican Governor Scott Walker imposed on Wisconsin’s public sector employees.”
Manitowoc machinists are now employed under contracts agreed at through collective bargaining between the union and the company. As part of their contract, staff must be union members and pay union dues, or face potential requests from the union for them to be sacked.
Manitowoc has recently told workers that it is seeking to offer them ‘Freedom to Choose’ whether or not to be union members, imperiling the long term future of the union.
The employer and union are due to agree a new contract. Manitowoc has offered workers an 8% pay rise, spread evenly over the next four years. It also proposes to remove language in the machinists’ contracts that makes union membership mandatory. The company told workers that it wants to ‘allow all employees, on an individual basis, to opt out of the mandatory union dues payment required to work at Manitowoc Cranes’. It says that each worker would have the freedom to choose to pay union dues, protected from any form of retaliation, and that it would continue to offer all workers the benefits of collectively bargained contracts.
The union sees it differently. IAM District 10 business representative Benito Elizondo said, at the start of the strike action, “This proposal is nothing more than union busting. It provides no economic value or added productivity for the company and virtually guaranteed the contract would be rejected and the strike would take place.
“While there was agreement on many issues, the company proposed new language toward the end of the negotiations that was absolutely unacceptable.
”The company proposed eliminating long-standing contract language requiring any employee who benefits from negotiated wages and benefits to become a member of the union that negotiated those benefits.”
The sides met last week to discuss the dispute, but failed to come to an agreement. The machinists remain on strike. Crane production continues at the plant however, as the union does not represent all staff on the production line. On Tuesday, 6 December, Manitowoc announced that it would bring back 12 laid-off members of the boilermakers union, to temporarily help keep crane production flowing. A further 25 boilermakers would be offered the chance to return to work on 12 December.
Manitowoc’s hiring of laid-off workers was accompanied by a reminder to strikers that it has the right to bring in permanent replacements for striking staff, although it said it does not currently plan to do so.
Manitowoc has invited Local 516 members to consider their options, reminding them that they can resign from the union while still meeting their ‘financial core commitments’ under the current contract, preventing the union from disciplining them for crossing picket lines. The union has called on ‘all Local 516 members to support their union brothers and sisters’, encouraging them to join the picket of the plant.
