UE NEWS Updates

UE Local 1174 filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board today because workers are being denied their benefits. The company informed employees that Wells Fargo, the bailed-out bank that had already cut off operating credit to the plant, would not approve the expenditure of owed vacation pay. In addition, the company now refuses to comply with a 2 percent wage increase due the employees under their legally-binding collective bargaining agreement or to pay a floating holiday, and has eliminated health insurance coverage.

In November 2008, UE Local 222 Sub-local 58, the Department of Public Works employees’ union, finally reached a tentative agreement for a new contract replacing the one that had expired in June 2007. But in an attempt to bully the committee, the town’s attorney inserted new language into the final draft that had never been negotiated or discussed at the bargaining table.

The members of UE Local 1174 are telling Wells Fargo & Co. not to put their plant out of business. Today they are visiting Wells Fargo’s corporate offices in Davenport, Iowa, demanding a meeting with bank officials and a plan to keep Quad City Die Casting open.