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Job-Saving Visteon Pact Ends Strike
More than 1,000 IUE-CWA Local 84907 members ended their 2-week strike against Visteon Corp. in Bedford, Ind., ratifying a four-year pact that provides job security for 700 workers and a $25,000 separation payment for up to 250 workers who voluntarily leave the company or face layoffs.
The members rejected Visteon's last contract offer on May 28 and went on strike May 30 after the company removed equipment from the plant, announced it would cut 600 jobs and said it would seek a 30-percent reduction in labor costs from the workers who remained.
But IUE-CWA Automotive Conference Board Chairman Jim Clark and the local bargaining committee returned to the table, obtaining an agreement that will preserve jobs for most, ease the transition to new employment or retirement for others, restore the machinery that had been removed and bring new work to the plant. The membership ratified the agreement by a vote of 528-410 and returned to work on June 15.
"This is a pact for the future for our members and for the company," Clark said. "The company agreed to maintain the Bedford facility into the future, and the international believes this agreement puts them in a position to do so for many years."
The pact preserves a significant part of a 2004 cost-of-living allowance the company had wanted to cut from $1.09 an hour to 5 cents an hour and yields a 3-percent overall wage increase at the beginning of the fourth year. Workers will continue to pay about 8 percent of their health care premiums with increases over the term of the contract capped at 20 percent of what they now pay.
"The company had wanted active workers and retirees to pay 20 percent of their health care premiums," Clark said. Retirees will now pay the same portion of their premiums as those still working.
Visteon will move back the equipment it had taken out of the plant by the end of the second week of July and there will be no layoffs before that time, Clark said.
Although it will still transfer FMD (fuel module delivery) work to other facilities, Visteon will bring in other new work to maintain the level of employment required by the contract, Clark said.
To limit the number of workers who will lose their jobs involuntarily, the most senior workers will be given first option on the separation incentive.
The members rejected Visteon's last contract offer on May 28 and went on strike May 30 after the company removed equipment from the plant, announced it would cut 600 jobs and said it would seek a 30-percent reduction in labor costs from the workers who remained.
But IUE-CWA Automotive Conference Board Chairman Jim Clark and the local bargaining committee returned to the table, obtaining an agreement that will preserve jobs for most, ease the transition to new employment or retirement for others, restore the machinery that had been removed and bring new work to the plant. The membership ratified the agreement by a vote of 528-410 and returned to work on June 15.
"This is a pact for the future for our members and for the company," Clark said. "The company agreed to maintain the Bedford facility into the future, and the international believes this agreement puts them in a position to do so for many years."
The pact preserves a significant part of a 2004 cost-of-living allowance the company had wanted to cut from $1.09 an hour to 5 cents an hour and yields a 3-percent overall wage increase at the beginning of the fourth year. Workers will continue to pay about 8 percent of their health care premiums with increases over the term of the contract capped at 20 percent of what they now pay.
"The company had wanted active workers and retirees to pay 20 percent of their health care premiums," Clark said. Retirees will now pay the same portion of their premiums as those still working.
Visteon will move back the equipment it had taken out of the plant by the end of the second week of July and there will be no layoffs before that time, Clark said.
Although it will still transfer FMD (fuel module delivery) work to other facilities, Visteon will bring in other new work to maintain the level of employment required by the contract, Clark said.
To limit the number of workers who will lose their jobs involuntarily, the most senior workers will be given first option on the separation incentive.