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The eBearing News
September 16, 2005
Timken's Canton Workers
Approve New Contract
copyright © 2005 eBearing Inc.
The Timken Company (USA, NYSE:
TKR)
and the United Steelworkers of America Local 1123 reached agreement on a new four-year
pact covering workers at the company's Canton-area bearing and steel plants. Local workers
ratified the contract, 1,643 for to 737 against.
The contract, which represents approximately 1,000 bearing plant workers and 1,700
steel plant workers, was set to expire on September 26.
It covers Timken's three troubled Canton-area bearing plants, the
steel plant, and a small contingent remaining at a steel finishing and warehouse
operation in Wooster.
The new contract calls for workers to carry a larger burden of the health care cost than they
currently do (maximum out-of-pocket $500 individual, $1,000 family), but less than the first
contract offer ($1,000 and $2,000). To ease the transition, employees get a one-time $500
health care credit. Pension benefits remain flat, no cuts or raises, and pay raises of 3% per year
with COLA remain in place. Language of the previously problematic and highly charged bearing-to-steel
job transfer opportunity has been changed to address steel employee concerns.
This result ensures some level of bearing manufacturing will continue in the Canton area,
although the extent is not yet known. In May 2004, Timken announced its three bearing manufacturing
plants around Canton could not be made viable, and would be closed. The affected plants are Canton Industrial
Bearings, which sits next door to corporate headquarters; Gambrinus Industrial
Bearing; and Gambrinus Roller Bearing.
• article: Timken will close three Canton-area bearing plants
While contract negotiations actually opened after that announcement, it took until late May 2005
for Timken and the Local to work out the first version of a contract which might save some of
those operations, and put it to a vote.
• article: Timken and Steelworkers reach Canton accord
However, that offer was soundly voted down by the rank and file, 1,129 to 895, out of approximately
2,500 eligible to vote.
• article: Steelworkers reject Timken contract
After that rejection, union leadership regrouped. Uncharacteristically, they publicly blamed
themselves for members voting down the offer, saying the local and national both failed to
properly explain the contract terms. Confusion, they said, not content, was the problem.
As a consequence, eBearing and many others noted, many Local 1123 members went into the June vote
wrongly informed about the contract, what it meant, and how it affected them. In particular,
workers at the steelmaking operations were misinformed and agitated by rumors over language in the contract
outlining the rights and seniority issues of bearing manufacturing workers who might transfer
into the steelmaking operations. Many steel workers wrongly believed bearing workers
could leverage their seniority, transfer into steel, and begin bumping out steel workers with less seniority.
In fact, a bearing plant worker can only apply for an open position at steel.
The confusion and potential for animosity and divided loyalties ran so deep that an unusually
large number of steel and
bearing plant workers contacted eBearing over the past several weeks, seeking information and
clarification (all were referred to Local 1123 and Timken corporate).
The rumors and misunderstandings were largely cleared up prior to this latest vote, but exposed an
underlying schism between bearing and steel workers which has been growing wider for many years.
A bargaining unit and contract which covers workers at such disparate operations
is relatively unique in today's business environment. Many involved in the Timken situation said
it was this us-versus-them clouded thinking which hung over and influenced the first "no" vote in June.
When the Canton-area contract bargaining unit was originally set up, the
bearing manufacturing operations were far more important and held far more negotiating power than
the steelmaking business. For the Canton-area steel workers to have reasonable leverage in negotiating
with Timken, they threw in their lot with the bearing workers. However, in recent years, the pendulum
has swung the other way; the steel workers now have the most profitable and important operations
around Canton, while the bearing manufacturing operations are struggling.
The latest contract version now guarantees 500 bearing-related jobs (from 1,000 currently employed)
will remain in Canton-area bearing plants -- although it does not guarantee all three plants will
remain open. It also promises capital investment, $14 million in the bearing plants and $100
million in the steel plants.
Don Walker, Timken's Senior VP of Human Resources, said: "This is a success for our associates
and the community. We are pleased to have successfully concluded this matter with the union and
look forward to intensifying our focus on delivering the quality and value our customers demand."
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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered
trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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