From: Trina Tocco (talkalot83@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jun 10 2002 - 20:18:17 EDT
Buffalo News
New Era Cap's workers to get 4% raise
By FRED O. WILLIAMS
News Business Reporter
6/7/2002
Under a tentative labor contract, New Era Cap Co. will raise base wages 4
percent and pay for a study of production quotas at its Derby plant, according to
members of the Communications Workers of America Local 14177.
The settlement was reached Monday night, ending an 11-month strike at the
cap-making factory in Derby, about 20 miles south of Buffalo. The plant's 330
workers are scheduled to vote on the proposal June 21.
"We accomplished what we were striking for," one union member said. "We feel
the company wants us back to work."
The terms of the proposed four-year contract were described to workers in
meetings Thursday in Derby.
Company officials declined to comment.
Base production rates will go to $9.50 per hour, from the company's proposal of
$9.10, with a 10-cent increase each year of the contract, said union members
speaking on condition of anonymity.
Workers must meet a quota set for their job to earn the base rate. The plant will
modify its quotas following a study by H. B. Maynard & Co., consultants, CWA
members said.
"The old standards are going to get thrown right out," one plant worker said.
The strike began last July 16 when the company instituted new quotas. The union
calculated that the changes would cut $3 from the average worker's earnings of
$12 an hour.
Workers said they won't know their earnings under the new contract until
production quotas are set.
"There's going to be some uncertainty for some people around the transition,"
said Jason Kozlowski, secretary of the local.
The proposal also reduces sick time and requires workers to accrue their four
personal days, which were automatic under the old agreement, union members
said.
Based in Derby, New Era has a plant in Buffalo and two in Alabama. It supplies
caps for major league baseball players under a contract with the league.
Workers at the Buffalo plant, represented by an independent union, approved a
new contract in December covering about 350 workers.
e-mail: fwilliams@buffnews.com
Ed Feigen, Strategic Campaigns Coordinator
Center for Strategic Campaigns, AFL-CIO
815 Sixteenth Street, NW, Room 5049
Washington, DC 20006 USA
TEL: 202/637-5187
FAX: 202/637-5012
E-MAIL: efeigen@aflcio.org
.........................................
www.aflcio.org
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