Another Corporate Squeeze: Profitable Kohler Co. Pushes Drastic Concessions

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6526/another_corporate_squeeze_profitable_kohler_co._pushes_drastic_concess/

Friday October 8 3:49 pm

By Roger Bybee

UAW local stages 'informational picket' in protest

The Kohler Co., the giant manufacturer of plumbing and other products, has become the latest profitable Wisconsin corporation to seek to exploit the recession by flushing decades of hard-won union gains down the drain.


Is a strike on the horizon? (Photo by SCOTT OLSON/Getty Images)

Kohler is seeking to impose a drastic set of concessions as it negotiates with United Auto Workers Local 833 on a new contract: a five-year wage freeze for those currently working, the establishment of a three-tiered workforce, and the right to employ caste of "perma-temps," as they are called elsewhere, for up to 25% of the total hours worked. The perma-temps would earn 35% less than current workers, be denied from union representation, and excluded from healthcare coverage until they had worked 1,000 hours.

In the case of Kohler, those improvements for workers were achieved by enduring a 1934 massacre (in which two workers were killed) and a nine-year strike from 1956 to 1965, the longest in U.S. history. Longtime Kohler workers like retiree Larry Klein recognize the stakes:

What our forefathers gave to us and fought for is completely being thrown out the window. Union-busting is what it is -- get the employees against the employees.

Kohler is following much the same model as executives at two other solidly-profitable and highly visible firms, Mercury Marine and Harley Davidson and managed to extort massive concessions from their unions, as covered here, here, here, and here. (As a family-owned corporation, Kohler is not required to divulge data on company profits and executive pay)

UAW LOCAL 833 ALREADY WAGING PUBLIC FIGHT

FULL story at link.