To the citizens of the Terre Haute community:
The strike at Bemis is a regrettable chapter in the history of employee relations here in the Terre Haute community. It is costly to the businesses in the community, to the company, and to the workers and their families.
Both sides — the Company and the workers — had their choices to make here.
The company chose, by their temporary employees proposal, over the workers’ representatives objections, to try to impose a contract that threatened to create jobs that would undermine working people’s ability to be contributing members of the community in a meaningful way. The workers, through their Union, chose to defend the quality of their jobs in the community. They wanted to preserve jobs that maintain a standard of living that provided for middle-class families, and contributed to the tax base of the community and its businesses.
The union’s leadership has a clear understanding of these concerns. They also understand that there are many people, across the entire community, who are greatly impacted by this situation.
Both sides must consider the needs of families whose breadwinners are on strike while the mortgage payment is due. They must also consider all the children in this community whose parents, under the company’s proposal, would be temporary workers, bringing home minimal wages and unable to provide health care for their loved ones.
Full-time workers with a living wage and a benefit plan have the ability to take their kids to a family doctor when they get sick, finance a home and a car, put food on the table, and support local merchants.
Temporary workers, through no fault of their own, will have to take their children to the emergency room when they get sick, relying upon state subsidized insurance programs, and live in an almost impoverished state. Full-time workers with a living wage and a benefit plan have a much greater ability to support the local tax base and local businesses, which is why Bemis receives a large tax abatement from the community.
On the other side of this struggle we see a global corporation with a long history of record profits. During this economic downturn when many companies are suffering, this company continues to generate huge profits and acquire its competitors. Meanwhile the company is attempting to leverage its workers’ fears of this weak economy into even larger profit margins.
Bemis’ drive to maximize profits forces this community to examine the prospect of future employment on a low-wage, no-benefit, temporary basis. The Bemis workers believe that the community deserves better from the executives who are calling these shots while making six- and seven-figure incomes.
The members of this union make decisions about this situation through their votes, which have overwhelmingly said “NO” to temporary workers, “NO” to a health care benefit with terms that the company will fill in later, and “NO” to intrusive medical testing to keep their insurance.
We are hopeful that Bemis representatives will come back to the bargaining table prepared to offer a contract proposal that brings this dispute to a swift end.
— Workers United Local 1426
Executive Board: Bob McNabb, Bill Kirby, Jack Lane,
Walker Carver, Scott Bettis,
Dave Kirkpatrick, Mark Sullivan, Chris Scott, Mark Lyday,
Kelly Cooksey
Terre Haute
