UAW ends 344-day strike at Williams Controls

An 11-month-old strike-turned-lockout at Tigard truck throttle manufacturer Williams Controls ended Aug. 19 when workers ratified a new five-year contract.

About 120 Williams workers, members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 492, went on strike Sept. 9, 2002, accusing the company of violating labor law for refusing to bargain a new contract “in good faith.” The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) investigated and agreed in May that the company had violated the law. That meant legally the strikers couldn’t be permanently replaced and that the longer the company waited to settle, the more back pay would be owed to the strikers, dating to the union’s April 11 unconditional offer to return to work.

Under the settlement, strikers will return to work in groups of at least 10 or 20 over a period of four months. During the dispute, at least a dozen strikers opted for early retirement, while several found better jobs, but as many as 98 are expected to return. As they do, the company will gradually terminate the 90 or so replacement workers it hired.

In other words, strikers will work alongside strikebreakers through Dec. 17.

Ironically, during those four months, replacement workers will have to join the union and pay dues.

Rivenes expects tension between the two sides, but said the union is calling on members not to respond to provocation.
“They’re also human beings, trying to provide for their families,” Rivenes said. “We’re going in there as professionals, and we’re going to act like professionals.”

In fact, say strike leaders, the strikebreakers may have been a factor pushing Williams to settle.

Dave Himebauch, who led the union bargaining team, thinks conditions were deteriorating in the plant. Strikebreakers hired initially at a higher wage than the union strikers were disgruntled when within a few months the company cut their pay by as much as $4 to $5 an hour. Himebauch believes absenteeism was high and late deliveries and complaints about quality were increasing.

Freightliner Inc. recalled nearly $1 million worth of throttles because of quality problems; throttles didn’t meet specifications, and were breaking before or after they were installed in trucks. Caterpillar complained about receiving shipments with triple the rate of defects. Customers were levying penalties for late shipments and the company risked losing large accounts.

While union leaders think production problems and legal hassles brought management to the table, they say another factor kept striking workers in the fight — solidarity — internal, local and international.

“We’ve all become a big family,” Rivenes said of the strikers. Not one member crossed the picket line to work for the company, strike leaders proudly report, even as some lost homes, cars and life savings.

“The longer we stayed together, the stronger we became,” Rivenes said.

Meanwhile, solidarity from the local labor movement kept morale up, despite the fact that before the strike, UAW Local 492 hadn’t engaged much with other unions.

“We were a sleepy little unit that had never been involved in any labor dispute before,” Himebauch recalled.

On advice from others, the union contacted the labor-community coalition Portland Jobs With Justice (JWJ). Through observing the example of more experienced picketers, union leaders said, Williams strikers learned how to picket aggressively without getting into trouble.

“We also found out about other people’s struggles, and a lot of them were in the same boat we are,” Rivenes said.

JWJ is inviting those who helped out during the long strike to attend a victory party Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the offices of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, 7095 S.W. Sandburg Street in Tigard.

Under their new contract, which took effect immediately, strikers get an immediate $1,500 signing bonus, plus a $1,600 distribution from a supplementary unemployment insurance benefit fund. The agreement sets up a new pay scale with a wage range of $12.74 to $24 — meaning pay cuts of 63 cents an hour for about 50 workers and slight pay raises for about 25 others. The contract’s 2 percent annual increases will bring all workers back up to what they were making before the strike in two to three years. Health and pension benefits were maintained, with a few cost-cutting changes.

And the new contract has the same union rights as before, such as union security, dues checkoff, a grievance procedure ending in binding arbitration, and a successor clause to ensure the contract remains binding if the company is sold. Both sides agreed to drop any NLRB charges stemming from the strike.

Himebauch will not return with the others. He had 12 years to go before retiring at Williams, but as UAW staff negotiator Ned Scott advised him at the beginning of the strike, union leaders can’t always go back to work. The company was reportedly determined not to take Himebauch back, and seemed prepared to drag out the settlement. Instead, with his agreement, the UAW bargained a year’s pay as severance.

Rivenes will take his place as leader of the bargaining unit until the next union officer election.