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Bahr Walks with New Era Strikers in Derby
Buoyed by a visit from CWA President Morton Bahr, more than 200 strikers turned out on the picket line March 20 outside New Era Cap Co.’s Derby, N.Y., plant.
Local 14177 members stood for several hours in the cold and rain to hear from Bahr and District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino, and to celebrate a sixth university dropping its contract with New Era.
“CWA is with you 100 percent,” Bahr told the workers. “We will be out here one day longer than New Era, if that’s what it takes, until you have a fair contract.”
Workers shouted back in unison, “One day longer.”
After the rally, Bahr and Mancino talked individually with strikers at a luncheon in Derby.
“They were very pleased,” said Local 14177 Steward Peggy MacPeek. “It was very uplifting.”
Local 14177 members and supporters have been talking to managers of Dicks Sporting Goods, Champs and Footlocker, asking them to drop New Era, and leafleting customers, asking them not to buy New Era or Titleist products made by New Era. The company makes caps under license from Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Professional Golfers Association and numerous colleges and universities.
On March 21, local officers and Dave Palmer, administrative assistant to Mancino, returned to the bargaining table, hoping to receive information clarifying the company’s assertion to the news media that workers at its Buffalo plant, under a production standard New Era would impose at Derby, are earning $12 an hour.”
“We do not believe that is correct,” Palmer said. “Hopefully, with the information, we can get them to move off their standard.”
The union’s position, that the new standard would cause a considerable loss of income to most workers, has been a major sticking point in the negotiations.
Meanwhile, on March 5, the Worker Rights Consortium announced that the University of Iowa has become the sixth major university to drop New Era as a supplier of merchandise bearing the school’s logo, because of violations of the university’s labor standards.
“Yes, those schools just seem to cut contracts one after another,” said Maria Roeper, WRC senior program associate.
The WRC is a service created by universities to monitor working conditions at companies that supply them products. UI joined the WRC last spring after United Students Against Sweatshops pressured the administration. A WRC report cites New Era for failing to adequately protect workers against blood-borne pathogens in cases involving needle sticks and for failing to properly diagnose and report work-related injuries.
Local 14177 members stood for several hours in the cold and rain to hear from Bahr and District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino, and to celebrate a sixth university dropping its contract with New Era.
“CWA is with you 100 percent,” Bahr told the workers. “We will be out here one day longer than New Era, if that’s what it takes, until you have a fair contract.”
Workers shouted back in unison, “One day longer.”
After the rally, Bahr and Mancino talked individually with strikers at a luncheon in Derby.
“They were very pleased,” said Local 14177 Steward Peggy MacPeek. “It was very uplifting.”
Local 14177 members and supporters have been talking to managers of Dicks Sporting Goods, Champs and Footlocker, asking them to drop New Era, and leafleting customers, asking them not to buy New Era or Titleist products made by New Era. The company makes caps under license from Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Professional Golfers Association and numerous colleges and universities.
On March 21, local officers and Dave Palmer, administrative assistant to Mancino, returned to the bargaining table, hoping to receive information clarifying the company’s assertion to the news media that workers at its Buffalo plant, under a production standard New Era would impose at Derby, are earning $12 an hour.”
“We do not believe that is correct,” Palmer said. “Hopefully, with the information, we can get them to move off their standard.”
The union’s position, that the new standard would cause a considerable loss of income to most workers, has been a major sticking point in the negotiations.
Meanwhile, on March 5, the Worker Rights Consortium announced that the University of Iowa has become the sixth major university to drop New Era as a supplier of merchandise bearing the school’s logo, because of violations of the university’s labor standards.
“Yes, those schools just seem to cut contracts one after another,” said Maria Roeper, WRC senior program associate.
The WRC is a service created by universities to monitor working conditions at companies that supply them products. UI joined the WRC last spring after United Students Against Sweatshops pressured the administration. A WRC report cites New Era for failing to adequately protect workers against blood-borne pathogens in cases involving needle sticks and for failing to properly diagnose and report work-related injuries.