The Shadow
Members of Covington Paperworkers Union Local 675 ratified a new five-year contract with MeadWestvaco Wednesday.
The contract covers approximately 900 hourly workers at the corporation’s Covington mill. According to CPU’s website, 77 percent of members voting Wednesday approved the new contract.
Only CPU members were allowed to vote. The union says it has about 500 members.
Hourly workers at the mill had been working under terms of a contract negotiated by the United Steelworkers Union last year.
CPU became the bargaining unit, however, after a bitterly-contested election in October. CPU leaders said the Steelworkers’ contract with MeadWestvaco contained too many concessions to the company. They said they could bring union members a better contract than the USW negotiated in the summer of 2009.
In March, CPU members soundly rejected a contract proposal from the company. CPU leaders said that contract contained marginal improvements. Union and company representatives went back to the bargaining table in June and July.
Negotiations took place in Lexington.
CPU President Roy Hall says he is not totally satisfied with the new contract but feels it’s time to move on and heal rifts between union members. USW Local 8-675 has maintained a presence at the mill since last October. Some Local 8-675 members refused to join CPU and became associate members of the USW.
“We had hoped to be able to do better,” Hall said this morning. “We had hoped to restore some of the stuff that was lost in 2009. But with the split in the union and non-union activity at the mill working against us, we weren’t able to achieve all of the goals we had set for ourselves.”
Hall said the new contract contains language that offers alternative health care to employees. He said CPU was also able to restore language dealing with employee seniority to the contract. He said the contract also contains new language that covers how employees select and sign up for vacations.
Hall declined to release numbers from Wednesday’s vote. He said CPU officials expect the United Steelworkers to soon file a legal challenge. If CPU had not gotten a new contract approved by October, the Steelworkers could have petitioned for a new union election at the mill.
Luis Mendoza, international representative for the USW, said the union is evaluating its options. He claims the new CPU contract is regressive, citing language that calls for workers to pay higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for health care, as proof of his argument.
“I can tell you we are not going anywhere,” Mendoza said this morning. “This is a sad day for this town. This [CPU] contract is worse than what was already on the table. When you are the union president, and you admit that it’s not a good contract, and you recommend that it be approved, then you didn’t do your job.”
Mendoza said USW’s associate members at the mill have no plans to join CPU.
CPU was formed in October 2007 when some union members voted to sever ties with the United Steelworkers International Union. CPU’s organizers said local union leaders and USW International representatives had conflicting priorities in contract negotiations with MeadWestvaco.
