UE Local 1021 members approved a new four-year contract with Kraco Enterprises on March 24 by a two-to-one margin. Over the term of the agreement members will receive $1 in wage increases. They also significantly held the line against the company’s attempt to shift the cost of healthcare premiums onto the workers.
UE Local 1103 members have ratified a new three-year contract with their employer, Tramont Corp. The workers, who manufacture diesel fuel tanks for industrial use, were able to overcome the company’s push for takeways and negotiate a contract with gains.
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The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) express our deep sympathy to the families, friends and communities of the coal miners killed, and others still missing, as a result of the April 5 explosion at Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia.
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| Our Newest UE Members from Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita, CA, celebrate after voting overwhelmingly for UE. Pictured, from left: Sarah Santana, Mila Jachacz, Terry Holcolm, Cora Berdin, Sue Contant, Alma Amador, Brenda Latoga and Liz Guerrero. |
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| The UE Local 243 negotiating committee at Sargent Manufacturing. Seated, left to right: Chief Steward Wayne Morrison, Anna Tondalo, Vice President Chris Fiorentino, Sylvia Davis, President Ray Pompano. |
Some 40 UE members from Iowa locals and sub-locals participated in the union’s annual political action day in Des Moines on January 28. They lobbied state legislators on six areas of concern to the union, and within the following few days won a victory on one of those issues. Both houses of the legislature approved a bill providing early retirement incentives for state workers, and on February 10, Governor Chet Culver signed it into law.
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| FOR JOBS, EDUCATION, EQUALITY AND LABOR RIGHTS: UE General Executive Board member Larsene Taylor (right) helps hold some of the key demands made by participants in the fourth annual HKonJ March for social justice last Saturday in Raleigh, NC. |
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| GETTING INVOLVED: Justin Durgin, (UE Local 262 at Madico in Woburn, MA) and Ali Goguen were among those at the first meeting of the UE Young Activist program: 'It’s great to feel like there are a lot more younger people facing the same issues.' |
UE’s Young Activis
A settlement of pay and benefit claims has been reached between the members of UE Local 1174, who formerly worked at Quad City Die Casting (QCDC), and the trustee in charge of the company’s assets. UE members will be paid for vacation to which they were entitled in 2009, and the trustee will place money from the sale of the company’s assets into a fund to settle workers’ outstanding medical bills that went unpaid when the company retroactively cancelled health coverage last year.
Members of Local 274 at Lamson & Goodnow Manufacturing in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts are scheduled to return to work on Wednesday, February 17, after being locked out by management since December 4, 2009. Just four days ago, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) informed the union and the company that it would be issuing a large group of complaints against Lamson & Goodnow.
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