Tramont Workers Turn Up The Heat For Living Wage

Sparky, 05.04.2007 22:59

April 5 – Union workers at Tramont Corporation stepped up the pressure on company bosses with a lively rally to protest low pay and unfair conditions.

Tramont has been lauded in the local press for its welder training program with MATC, but the union highlights a very different story. Workers speak of sexual harassment, racial and ethnic discrimination and unfair firings. Only a handful of these newly trained workers remain with the company.

Marching with signs reading ‘Living Wage Now’, members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1103, were joined by other labor and community supporters outside the company’s plant on Humboldt Boulevard this afternoon.

With the current contract due to expire in the next few days, workers were voting today on management’s ‘final offer’ for a new deal. Despite the Company’s solid record of profits, this would leave wage levels well below the average for similar local jobs.

Confident the offer would be rejected, UE representative Mark Meinster said he hoped to see management back at the table next week, but that strike action was also a real possibility.

Background interview 07.04.2007 - 11:32 Interview with Mark Meinster, UE International Representative (April 5, 2007) Tramont are a company that makes steel enclosures for generators and ground tanks for diesel fuel. The workers are mostly welders, fabricators and machine operators. They organized a union three years ago as a response to a pay cut by the company. In the first contract, the union was able to restore the pay cut and get a raise. The other big issue was rights for immigrant workers and we got good language secured in the contract on protecting their rights. The current contract is the second one. In the last three years, the company has doubled in size, they’ve opened another factory in South Milwaukee, they’re making tons of money, but they don’t seem to want to share any of it with the workers. The contract expires tomorrow night (April 6). We’re in negotiations now. Initially, the company had wanted to take out the immigrant rights language. They fought very hard, but we won that fight, so that’s not going to happen. They wanted some other take-aways and we beat them back on those, too. Right now, the company has said they’ve given us their last, best and final offer, but our members are saying it’s not good enough, that they need to do better on wages. The problem is the workers here are paid about $3 an hour below average for most of the jobs. We’re hoping the company comes to its senses and sits back down to the bargaining table before people strike here - because that’s the direction it’s going. But we don’t feel that’s going to be productive in the long-run, we think the company needs to pay a living wage. This company has got a lot of good publicity for opening a welder training program but what’s happened is they took public money to open that program, the welders came into the shop, but because of the low wages and the really bad treatment, discrimination, harassment – including cases of sexual harassment – they’ve almost all left. And that’s the story that’s not being told about this company. [Today’s] vote is on the company’s final offer and we’re recommending they reject. After that, we’ll call the company and tell them they need to sit down with us again. If they don’t, we’re doing to take some action against them next week and we’ll see what that is. We think it’s really unfair what they’re doing here. They’ve made a lot of money. The raises they’re offering are way below average, even for regular union settlements, on top of already below average wages. People think that’s a slap in the face. Sparky> Union files unfair labor charges 26.04.2007 - 08:52 From: The Business Journal, Milwaukee Production employees at Tramont have now ratified a new contract, but the union representing employees has filed several unfair labor practice charges against the company. The United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America Local 1103, which represents about 215 employees at Tramont, 3701 N. Humboldt Blvd., filed the charges April 16 with the National Labor Relations Board's Milwaukee office. More at  http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2007/04/23/daily28.html?jst=b_ln_hl Sparky>