Tyson workers accept contract proposal

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.chronicletimes.com/story/1525249.html

Thursday, March 26, 2009
By Mike Leckband , Staff Writer

Union has 60 percent turnout on vote

On March 17th, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 179 in Cherokee voted on a contract proposal offered by Tyson Foods, Inc. The rank and file members voted 175 'yes' votes and 67 'no' to accept a one-year contract proposal.

According to UFCW Local 179 President Jim Brummond, voter turnout was lower than expected with only 60-percent of the union members voting on the contract.

On Jan. 21 members voted 'no' to a one-year contract with a wage freeze along with a 2-percent signing bonus to be paid up front.

Concessions may by Tyson since that vote was a 25-cents an hour increase in wages for production workers and 35-cents per hour increase for maintenance workers. Brummond stated that the increase in wages comes out roughly to a 2-percent increase. "We were happy to have a 2-percent increase rather than just a one-time signing bonus of 2-percent."

"It's been since 2003 since we had seen our last increase in wages, a quarter isn't much" said Brummond. The only other positive concession from Tyson was a little bit of better language in the contract itself, indicated Brummond.

Another concession by Tyson was an increase of the amount on an employee meal ticket. An employee currently earns a $2 meal ticket after having worked a consecutive 10 hours during the day, and that meal ticket will now be increased to $3.

FULL story at link.

[liberal renegade]

1. better than a sharp stick in the eye..