The Bemis/ Workers United Local 1426 Story

Local 1426 of Workers United was formed in 1957. For the last 52 years this local union has worked with Bemis to grow this plant from 150 employees to over 1,000 employees just a few years ago. Members of the Union agreed to contracts with modest wage gains over the years to help the Company create good paying jobs for employees that would provide a decent middle class lifestyle for their families. This was good for their families, and for the Terre Haute community.

This cooperative relationship was not without its problems. In 1962 members of the Union struck Bemis to achieve a Union Shop which ensured that going forward all of the employees could enjoy the advantages of Union membership. After the strike was over the membership returned to work, healed the wounds of the strike with the Company, and made them profitable again.

In 1985 the members of Local 1426 found it necessary to strike again. They were fighting to maintain quality healthcare coverage for their families, and to eliminate mandatory overtime, which resulted in more good jobs for members of the community. After that strike, they again returned to their jobs and worked hard to make Bemis even more profitable.

In the last 2 decades Bemis Company grew at exponential rates, acquiring competitors, and increasing the size of the Terre Haute facility. During this period members accepted contracts that modestly improved their wage & benefit package to just barely keep up with the cost of inflation. At the same time they worked with the Company on job efficiencies that resulted in job combinations and a higher workload for employees. They did this to make their Company more competitive.

In recent years management changed. Community leaders, like Neil Ganley who led the Terre Haute facility for years, were replaced. More and more, management reflected the interests of corporate management from the Curwood Corporation in Wisconsin that acquired control of the Company.

In the last two years, the Company has become more combative in its relationship with the Union and its members. Last year, without any advance notice to the workers Union representatives, the Company announced that it was going to require all employees, and their spouses, to submit to invasive medical testing in order to remain eligible for their health insurance. The way it was done, with no bargaining with Union representatives, as the law requires, was not only illegal, but was insulting and demeaning to workers and their families.

Charges were filed with the national Labor Relations Board over the Company's conduct, the government issued a complaint against the Company, and the NLRB eventually approved a settlement of the case to resolve this dispute.

But in negotiations this year, starting in May, the Company again insisted that the intrusive testing of employees and spouses would be reintroduced in the new contract as a condition of their being eligible for insurance coverage. If they didn't submit to it they would lose their health insurance coverage in 2010.

Again the Company was trying to impose its will on its Union members. Additionally Bemis proposed that the workers accept temporary employees, who work for low wages and receive no benefits, as co-workers, working side by side with them, in the workplace. These temporary workers would have no long range future with the Company, and would not be contributing back to the community in any meaningful way.

While the Union bargaining committee tried to work with the Company on this concept, they asked Bemis for protections so that these low wage employees didn't eventually replace the middle class jobs that they had fought for 52 years to preserve. The Union committee even extended the contract scheduled to expire July 1, by 21 days to try to work out their differences and avoid a strike. In the end, the Company failed the test of securing family-supporting jobs for the future.

The membership of Local 1426 overwhelmingly voted to turn down the Company's final offer on a vote that concluded July 21st primarily over these two issues. The Union committee, in an effort to avoid a costly strike to both sides, made an alternative offer to the Company to continue bargaining while employees worked without a contract. Bemis refused this offer. The Union had no choice but to commence a strike to preserve the family-supporting jobs they had always fought to protect. Within hours the Company, without negotiating with the Union, lowered its final offer, adding to the frustrations of the workers over the bargaining that had taken place leading to the strike.

Bemis Company's profits remain extremely strong even during the current economic crisis. In the first 3 months of 2009, they reported a profit of over 91 million dollars, up over 16% better than the same period in 2008. The company's proposals that are at the root of this strike are not crucial to the future profitability of Bemis.

This story is not a story of greedy workers looking for outrageous wages they don't deserve. It's about workers trying to maintain a decent standard of living for employees in the Terre Haute area. It's about maintaining jobs that contribute positively to their families and the communities that they live in; jobs that unfortunately have been disappearing in Indiana at alarming rates in recent years.