Over the course of the last contract, monthly premiums for family health-care coverage went from $70 to $294--equivalent to a pay cut of about $1.40 an hour. During the same time, the average wage increased by only $1.10 an hour.

Becky Dinnetz, an assembler at the plant who has four children she raises alone, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press she has gone without health insurance because she can’t afford the premiums. Before the strike her job paid $10.62 an hour. She said she recently qualified for Minnesota Care, a state-subsidized health-care program for lower income workers.

Under the old contract, the company paid for part of the workers’ health insurance premiums, but increases were capped at 6 percent a year. The union demanded the company remove or raise the cap.

Under the two-tier system adopted in the 1980s, new hires made between 60 cents and $1.70 less than other workers doing the same job.

Cornelius’s first contract offer narrowed the gap in the two-tier system and increased the company’s contributions to the medical premiums, but with a cap. That proposal was turned down by a 3 to 1 margin. A second contract, approved by the union’s negotiating committee, was turned down October 8 by a 230-87 vote.

About 150 workers and supporters, mostly from other USWA locals, rallied October 14 in support of the strike.

The contract finally approved, by a 2 to 1 vote, improves medical coverage and reduces the two-tier wage gap. Insurance premiums are lowered, although at the cost of higher co-payments for doctors’ visits and prescriptions. Monthly premiums fall to $238 for the rest of this year and $240 for next year.

The company’s contribution will be capped at a certain amount if premiums rise exponentially.

Workers hired after the two-tier system was implemented will get an extra 15 cents per hour in the first and second years of the contract. All workers will get raises of at least 40 cents per hour in each year of the contract.  
 
 
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