Vol. 80/No. 2 January 18, 2016
Kohler workers end strike,
make gains but still face 2-tier
“The tiers are still there but we got our wages a little higher,” Nathan Brion, 23, a Tier B forklift driver who worked at Kohler for two months and then went on strike, told the Militant. “The Tier A workers didn’t have to do this, but they went out for us. I was surprised by support we got from people who didn’t even work for Kohler. This was a popular strike that showed that labor isn’t cheap.”
“The company was not expecting what we did,” UAW Local 833 Vice President Jim Brock told the Militant in a phone interview Dec. 22. “They thought it was going to be another rollover, which we had been doing the last five years.”
The 2010 contract, approved when there were layoffs at Kohler and factory closings in the area, included instituting a second tier paying new hires substantially less, a five-year wage freeze and higher health insurance costs.
The strike began Nov. 15 when the local voted overwhelmingly against a “last, best and final” three-year contract proposal in which Kohler, an international manufacturer of plumbing and bath fixtures, refused the union’s demand for a contract that would end the two-tier wage system.
The new four-year contract makes small improvements in the wage offer. Tier B workers will receive an average $3.20 an hour increase in 2016, similar to the rejected contract offer, and 50 cents an hour, 10 cents more than previously offered, for each of the next three years, bringing their average pay to $19.39 by 2019. Tier A workers’ average pay will increase from the current $22.78 to $24.78 in 2019.
The strikers received widespread solidarity from the community and the labor movement. Thousands turned out for two union rallies. The local stocked a food pantry with contributions from workers and local businesses. The Carpenters union sent a $42,000 contribution.
“It was awesome that other unions were standing up for us, but we were also getting a lot of nonunion people bringing us food, honking their horns in support,” said David Ottensmann, a Tier A worker. “We settled on a contract, but we were fighting for our Tier B brothers and sisters and our children. We showed that the unions have their place.”
“I was ready to retire at the end of January. Standing up for the Tier B was the reason for the strike. They are the future,” said Michael Volk, who has worked at Kohler for 39 years.
“I’m content, but not happy,” Kurt Martinek, a Tier B ceramic sink-maker, told the Militant. “We are getting better compensation. It is a step in the right direction. We put up a good fight.”
Martinek is from a nonunion family. “I saw how a union can stick together,” he said. “The outpouring from the community was fantastic. It would have been nice to get rid of the two-tier over the course of the contract. As workers retire, Tier B will become Tier A. But the company will try to get another Tier B. That is what I think is coming and then it is time for the union to step up and do what we saw here.”
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On the Picket Line
Colorado meatpackers fired in dispute over prayer breaks
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