Labor Notes: John Deere Workers Win Wage Increases and Bonuses

Some 10,000 union workers who produce farm equipment for the John Deere company have voted to ratify a new six-year contract, and will end their month-long strike. 61% of the United Auto Workers members at John Deere voted in favor of the deal, which brings an immediate 10% raise; an $8,500 signing bonus; two future 5% raises; and bonuses to workers who meet production targets. Clearly a large number were not happy with the offer and wanted to stay out longer. It is yet unclear what concessions might have been traded away that would especially affect new hires’ salaries, pensions and insurance costs.

UC-AFT Lecturers Union Reach Tentative Agreement With UC

UC-AFT lecturers union announced it had reached a tentative agreement with UC administration on the terms of a new five-year collective bargaining agreement. The deal includes improvements in crucial areas, including job stability, workload and compensation. It includes a $1,500 signing bonus and thirty percent wage increases over the five-year contract.
“It has taken 20-plus years to get this victory,” added CFT President Jeff Freitas at a rally on Wednesday at UCLA. “It was through the lecturers talking to each other saying we want respect, we want job protections, we want to be treated like professionals. It’s in solidarity that we win.”
Six thousand five hundred lecturers teach one third of classes for full time professors yet have always been treated worse than second class citizens. They are non-tenured and have worked 20 months without a contract.
Lecturers now will get a formal review after their first year and a preference for classes the next year before any new hire. After two years, another review and a continuing appointment. Finally, a third three-year appointment leads to another review, and a permanent appointment. Under the current system lecturers are required to apply for their jobs each year for the first five years of their careers. Now after the first year, all contracts will be multi-year.
It came hours before UC-AFT members were set to walk the picket line on a two-day Unfair Labor Practices strike. The agreement is hailed as one of the best contracts for contingent faculty.
UC-AFT President Mia McIver said, “This victory is owed to the hard work of organizing that our members have done for over two and a half years. Thousands have participated in our campaign, joining our open bargaining sessions or pledging to join us on the picket line. We built the power to win the contract we deserve.”

Kaiser Permanente Nurses Strike in Solidarity with Engineers

Kaiser Permanente nurses conducted a two-day work stoppage Nov. 18 in solidarity with the company’s engineers, Local 39 Operating Engineers, according to the California Nurses Association (CNA).
The Kaiser Permanente medical centers where the workers are striking are in the north of the state.
With this strike, the nurses expressed their solidarity with some 600 engineers from the International Union of Operational Engineers (IUOE), Local 39, who have been on strike since Sept. 18.
“An injury to one of us is an injury to all, so the nurses will stand in solidarity with our fellow engineers as they go on strike,” said CNA President Cathy Kennedy, who works at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville.
Alabama Miners Fight Court Injunction By Warrior Met
“This is a serious attack on the union,” Bryan Butler, a United Mine Workers of America member on strike at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Alabama, told the Militant by phone Nov. 16. He was referring to the restraining order, now extended twice, by Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge James Roberts.
The order, first enacted Oct. 27 at the mine operator’s request, and now extended until Dec. 5, bans union activity of any kind, including picketing, within 300 yards of the mines.
The company got the order after organizing a violence-baiting campaign against the union, blaming miners for confronting scabs crossing the picket lines.
The company has been mining coal with scab labor at the No. 7 mine since early in the strike and has now started mining at No. 4, Butler said. Alabama state troopers provide regular escorts for the scabs driving or being bused into the mines.
The strike by 1,100 UMWA members began after Warrior Met refused to reverse massive concessions in wages and benefits made five years earlier, when previous owner Jim Walter Resources went bankrupt.