Briggs and Stratton Employees Reject Contract in Low Vote Turnout

September 7 -- Local Briggs and Stratton Corp. union employees have again rejected a contract proposal in a vote with low turnout.

Workers voted 109-22 to reject the proposal Sunday, said Briggs spokeswoman Laura Timm. That was a lower turnout than the rejected proposal in August in which just 162 voted, out of the approximately 395 employees in Wauwatosa and Menomonee Falls represented by United Steelworkers Local 2-232.

“We are extremely disappointed in (Sunday’s) vote,” Timm said in an email to The Business Journal on Monday. “We have been negotiating with the bargaining committee in good faith and have presented a very fair and equitable offer. It is very unfortunate that member turnout was even less than the last vote, and that it was held on a Sunday afternoon (during a Packer game). Many members have to drive a fair distance and that makes it challenging for them.”

USW Local 2-232 officials could not be immediately reached Monday afternoon. USW Local 2-232 president Jesse Edwards told WITI-TV (Channel 6) on Sunday that there was improvement in the contract’s language but the economics of the deal were “the same or even worse.”

Briggs offered a four-year agreement that would include a $500 ratification bonus and a $500 contribution to each employee’s health savings account in the first year, a 1 percent wage increase and $500 bonus in the second year and 2 percent wage increases in the third and fourth years, Timm said. The health benefit changes would match that of salaried employees, which equates to a 3.8 percent wage improvement over the current plan.

Pensions will be frozen for all hourly and salaried employees at the end of the calendar year, life insurance will be eliminated for future retirees and mandatory Saturday workdays would be increased by two, to 18, in the rejected proposal, Timm said.

“We will meet with the bargaining committee again at a mutually agreeable time to determine what the next steps will be,” Timm said.

Wauwatosa-based Briggs manufactures small engines and outdoor power equipment. In August it reported a wider fourth-quarter net loss on weak sales and higher costs that included expenses for restructuring actions at plants worldwide.

Jeff Engel            www.bizjournals.com