Steelworkers Union Approves 4-Year Contract at Briggs and Stratton

MILWAUKEE -- October 30 -- United Steelworkers Local 2-232, which represents about 395 employees at Briggs and Stratton Corp. plants in the Milwaukee area, voted Wednesday to accept a four-year labor contract that includes 2% pay raises in three of the four years.

The contract was approved by a vote of 268 in favor to 82 against, Briggs spokeswoman Laura Timm said.

Briggs is the world's largest manufacturer of gasoline engines used in outdoor power equipment. The company also makes generators, lawn-and-garden equipment and other products.

The new contract, effective Jan. 1, covers employees at the company's engine components plant in Wauwatosa and a distribution center in Menomonee Falls.

Employees will receive 2% raises in the second, third and fourth years of the contract. They also will receive the same health care benefits as salaried employees, Timm said.

"Everybody will be under one benefits plan," she said.

Also under the contract, permanent employees will not be replaced by temporary employees. Instead, temporary employees will only be brought in for seasonal work.

In another change, employees won't have to take an initial pay cut when they transfer to another job. That was important to the membership, said Local 2-232 President Jesse Edwards.

After meeting with a negotiations mediator on Oct. 23, the union bargaining committee recommended that members vote to accept the contract.

"Overall, I feel like it was the best we could do at this time," Edwards said.

This was the third contract vote at the Briggs plants in three months. The first two times the proposal was rejected, but the voter turnout was low.

To encourage a higher turnout Wednesday, the company shut down its plants here and gave employees their regular full pay for the day if they attended the union meeting that preceded the vote and explained the terms of the proposed contract.

Union members said they were told this was Briggs' best and final offer. If the contract had been rejected again, work could have been moved out of the area or the contract terms could have been implemented by the company, union officials said.

"I don't think the members wanted to go on strike, so they accepted the proposal," Edwards said.

Under the previous three-year contract, employees' increased health insurance costs more than offset pay raises and a one-time $500 signing bonus.

Union leaders made no recommendation on that pact, which was approved in October 2010 by a vote of 211 to 77.

Rick Barrett           www.jsonline.com     

Briggs and Stratton, Union to Continue Labor Talks

April 20 -- Briggs and Stratton Corp. and local union officials intend to return to the negotiating table after workers in Menomonee Falls and Wauwatosa rejected a proposed labor contract over the weekend.

Only 162 of the 395 local Briggs employees represented by United Steelworkers Local 2-232 voted on Saturday, the company said. That was because the union had short notice, receiving the company’s proposal on Wednesday and disseminating it to workers the following day, Jesse Edwards, president of USW Local 2-232 and a Briggs production worker, told The Business Journal.

Both sides have indicated they want to continue negotiations. Briggs spokeswoman Laura Timm said the company thought the rejected offer was “fair and equitable,” but Edwards called it a “bad contract.”

“We continue to work with the company over the years and they continue to take away from the people,” Edwards said in a phone interview. “It’s just time that they share some of the profits, some of the benefits with the members rather than just consistently taking away from them.”

The rejected four-year contract would raise wages 2 percent annually during three years of the deal, Timm said. But Edwards and union members are upset because it wouldn’t increase wages in the first year of the contract, he said.

The contract would freeze pensions for union workers beginning Dec. 31, something already announced for salaried workers. The company is “enhancing” its 401(k) match starting in January, Timm said, but Edwards said the company match is “not that lucrative.”

Other parts of the rejected contract include a slight increase in mandatory Saturday workdays, aligning health and benefits programs with salaried employees’ benefits, and better life and accidental death benefits, Timm said.

The proposal would also eliminate job preference provisions beginning in 2017, which Timm said would have no economic impact on employees and that most local union employees do not have job preference. Edwards disputed that, saying that workers use job preference all the time and the union will push to keep it.

He said the proposed contract would allow the company to hire more temporary workers.

“It eats at the heart of the union,” Edwards said. “We would like for them to hire full-time workers.”

Jeff Engel          www.bizjournals.com  

Briggs and Stratton Union Workers Reject Contract

August 19 -- Local Briggs and Stratton Corp. union employees rejected a proposed new four-year labor agreement on Saturday, but the company plans to return to the bargaining table.

Just 162 of the 395 Briggs employees in Wauwatosa and Menomonee Falls represented by United Steelworkers Local 2-232 voted on Saturday, Briggs spokeswoman Laura Timm told The Business Journal.

Calls to USW officials were not immediately returned Monday afternoon.

Briggs leadership is working with union leaders to schedule meetings to continue negotiations, Timm said.

“Briggs and Stratton believes that the offer made to the United Steelworkers 2-232 was fair and equitable,” Timm said in a prepared statement. “We are disappointed in the outcome of the vote and hope we can work toward a resolution.”

The proposed contract would have raised wages 2 percent in each of the next three years. It would cut pay for workers who choose to move into a “lower labor grade job,” something that rarely happens, Timm said.

It would freeze pensions beginning Dec. 31, something already announced for salaried workers. The company is “enhancing” its 401(k) match starting in January, Timm said.

Other parts of the rejected contract include a slight increase in mandatory Saturday workdays, aligning health and benefits programs with salaried employees’ benefits, and better life and accidental death benefits, Timm said.

The company offered a $500 ratification bonus for each employee.

Wauwatosa-based Briggs manufactures small engines and outdoor power equipment. Last week it reported a wider fourth-quarter net loss on weak sales and higher costs, including for continued restructuring actions at plants worldwide.

Jeff Engel                 www.bizjournals.com     

Briggs and Stratton Union Workers Start Anti-Dues Petition

Rick Barrett  www.jsonline.com   

Nov. 23, 2010

In what has become an increasingly difficult environment for organized labor, some union workers at Briggs and Stratton Corp. are circulating petitions asking for the right to avoid paying union dues.

The petition to remove the union security clause from the contract would not do away with the union, United Steelworkers Local 2-232, but would do away with the requirement that all union-covered workers pay dues.

The unusual action was triggered by a pending dues increase that would link the size of the monthly dues payment to an employee's wages - in some cases more than doubling the dues of the highest-paid workers.

The move comes as unions at Briggs and several other marquee Wisconsin companies - including Mercury Marine Inc., Kohler Co. and Harley-Davidson Inc. - have had to accept contract concessions such as two-tier wage systems that pay new workers less, increased use of temporary workers, layoffs, wage freezes or increased health care costs.

"Union members generally like their unions," said John Heywood, a business professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who teaches classes in human resources and labor relations. 

"But they have had to give up a lot. It's not a good environment."

The Briggs petitioners contend that giving employees the option of not paying dues would hold union leaders more accountable, forcing them to work harder for their members.

"All we are looking for is freedom of choice," said Briggs employee Don Metzefeld.

The Steelworkers represent about 350 employees at the Briggs plants in Milwaukee and Menomonee Falls.

The petitioners have asked the National Labor Relations Board for an election that would decide whether employees have the right to not pay union dues and, under law, still get the benefits of the union contract. They need 107 signatures to get an election, and organizers said they have about 70.

Such petitions are rare, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which said there have been only four of them in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the past four years.

Of those four, three resulted in elections, but none resulted in an elimination of the union security clause.

"Our office has been open since June 1964. Over that time, we have had 180 of these petitions. It's not very many," said Erving Gottschalk, National Labor Relations Board regional director.

Triggering the petition drive among the Briggs workers was the upcoming change in the dues structure.

Union members pay dues of about $44 a month, regardless of their annual income.

Under the new system, effective in January, a worker with gross pay of $5,000 a month, working 190 hours, would pay about $76 a month in dues, according to Steelworkers officials.

In contrast, someone earning $2,000 a month, or $24,000 a year, would see a decrease in dues.

"It's based on your ability to pay. We believe the formula is fair to all of our members," said Michael Bolton, Steelworkers District 2 director.

For five years, the new system has been scheduled to be implemented in 2011, Bolton said, adding that the Steelworkers' leadership opposes the petitioners' efforts. "It's for the betterment of all to have a union shop," he said.

Briggs employees recently approved a labor contract that gave them a signing bonus and 2% annual raises for the next three years, but it also increases health care costs and allows the company to bring in temporary workers to supplement production in the generator division at Wauwatosa.

Briggs officials said they were not involved in the union petitions and declined to comment.

At some companies, many people get the benefits of union representation without having to pay for it, Heywood said.

"Ultimately, a union will not be able to do its job if enough people don't pay," he said. A vote to eliminate a union security clause "can be the first move to undermine and replace the union, if enough people go along for a free ride."

But getting rid of the security clause doesn't mean everyone will abandon a union, said Cheryl Maranto, a Marquette University associate professor of management in the College of Business Administration.

"If there's a small, disgruntled group of people who don't want to be part of the union, it would not be a big deal. But if a large number of people choose not to join the union, and not pay the dues, it would definitely have some impact," Maranto said.

The petitioners said their effort differs from a "decertification" election, which tries to remove a union as the collective bargaining representative.

"Even after a successful de-authorization, every employee remains fully covered by the contract, whether or not he or she remains a union member or pays any dues," a Briggs employee noted in an e-mail. "Union officials have to sell the benefits of union membership."

In the long run, the change could weaken a union's collective bargaining power, said Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of American Rights at Work, a pro-union organization.

"It's a drain on resources," she said. "The next time the union negotiates a contract, it won't be in as strong of a position. Long term, it could cost the workforce a lot more than their union dues on a range of issues, including wages and benefits and having a voice in the workplace."

Briggs Contract Boosts Pay, But Health Insurance Costs Also Grow

www.jsonline.com

Oct. 22, 2010 -- Briggs and Stratton Corp. workers will lose ground financially under a newly approved labor contract despite a signing bonus and 2% annual raises for the next three years, the head of the union representing the employees said Friday.

A company spokeswoman, however, called approval of the contract "a win-win for everyone."

Members of United Steelworkers Local 2-232 on Thursday voted 211-77 to accept the three-year pact.

"To the public, it may appear that we're getting a raise, but in reality, we're not," said Jesse Edwards, president of Local 2-232.

Employees' increased health insurance costs under the contract more than offset the boost in pay and the one-time, $500-a-person signing bonus, he said.

"We feel that it was a bad contract, but it gives the members a chance to work a little longer and maybe come back after the three years and try to improve the contract," Edwards said.

He said the union leadership made no recommendation to members on the pact. It covers about 350 employees at Briggs' plant in Wauwatosa, where the firm also has its headquarters.

Union-represented workers there average about $16 an hour, Edwards said.

Under the new contract, he said, the amount employees must pay annually in health insurance deductibles before coverage kicks in will rise by $1,200 for a single person and by $1,800 for a family.

He said the contract allows the company to bring in temporary workers to supplement production in the generator division at Wauwatosa as it sees fit.

Major Wisconsin manufacturers increasingly are seeking to use lower-paid temporary, or casual, labor, which gives management production flexibility and cost savings.

Laura Timm, director of corporate communications for Briggs, said by e-mail that the company recently added jobs at Wauwatosa with the introduction of home-generator manufacturing. The new contract reflects the seasonal production of the generators, she said.

Virtually all of Briggs' U.S. employees already have seen or will see the same changes in health insurance plans that the contract with the Steelworkers incorporates, Timm said.

Edwards also said Friday that Briggs plans to move production of engine coils out of Wauwatosa in 2012. The work will go to China and the Dominican Republic, he said. About 20 to 25 Wauwatosa employees now do the coil work, Edwards said.

Timm said Briggs has had coils made in the Dominican Republic for "a very long time."

"We continue to evaluate the best possible source for coils both domestically and internationally," she said.