www.ottumwacourier.com/local/local_story_106231031.html -
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Published on: 4/17/2007
Last Visited: 4/17/2007
IAM spokesman Ed Miller said union members voted nearly unanimously to walk.The Saturday vote followed rejection of the company's final offer, which Miller said boosts health care costs without compensating workers with significant pay increases.He said the proposal raises pay 90 cents over five years.
"The proposal from the company is a five-year agreement and the insurance deductibles gradually go up to, in the fourth year, double what they are now," Miller said."That's, basically, a regressive proposal on insurance.The members wouldn't have a problem accepting the insurance if the money was there."
The union's last contract covered five years.Miller said the pay in the previous contract went up by $2.35 over the course of that contract.
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Miller said the two sides came to agreement on everything but pay and health insurance costs.The company and the union spent the last week of negotiations haggling over those details.
Miller said the union represents about 165 employees out of a total work force of 212.
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There are no negotiations currently scheduled, though Miller said the union is prepared to go back to the table at any time.
"The ball's in their court," he said.
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