Some 2,250 members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 1526 went on strike September 23 at the Amana Refrigeration plant in Amana, Iowa. Amana was purchased by appliance manufacturer Maytag in August. Maytag is pushing to impose a two-tier wage structure with a lower wage for new hires, increase mandatory overtime from 160 to 240 hours per year, and eliminate a planned wage increase while upping health-care costs.

Strikers say that many employees were working 10 hours a day, six days a week before the strike, and that the demand by the company to expand forced overtime was a big part of the vote against the contract. They also said that they were against the idea of paying new hires less than other workers, seeing it as a way to divide the union. Amana workers earn about $5 an hour less than workers at the Maytag plant in Newton, Iowa, who are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW).

In September, Maytag announced that they expect third-quarter profits to increase 15 percent over last year, "due in part to improved earnings from Amana sales," according to the Des Moines Register. Strikers said that when their negotiating committee put copies of a news report on the Maytag earnings in front of company negotiators, one of them made it into a paper airplane and threw it back to the union members.

In Marshalltown, Iowa, 44 members of UAW Local 893 unanimously rejected proposed contract demands by Marshall Engineering Product Company (MEPCO). The company proposed a three-year wage freeze, a 400 percent increase in health insurance premiums, a reduction in the number of union stewards on the floor, and a cut in seniority rights.

Strikers also told the Militant that the company wants to tell the union how to elect its executive board, demanding that it include representatives from each department, instead of being elected shop wide. "They had negotiated with the intent to shut it down," UAW International service representative Dennis Walker told the Marshalltown Times Republican.

Strikers at MEPCO said that workers at the Marshalltown Veterans Home are also in a fight for a contract. The workers there, members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3746, work for ABM Industries Inc.

Their flyer says that ABM makes almost $2 million a year on the contract with the veterans' home, while workers "earn approximately $8 per hour, family health insurance costs about $400 per month out of workers pocket and there is no retirement plan." Union members at the veterans' home were planning to hold strike training October 1.

Kevin Dwire is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1149 at Swift in Marshalltown, Iowa.  
 
 
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