Almost three-fourths of UAW ballots cast OK’d T.A. with Cat. The United Auto Workers on March 13 started working under a new, six-year contract with Caterpillar Inc. after a ratification vote the previous day resulted in 71.5% voting union members supporting the tentative agreement, according to Reuters.
Neither the UAW nor Cat said how many ballots were cast. Although the complete proposed pact was not available to members until the day of the vote, members said, early outlines of the terms included a $6,000 bonus if it’s ratified, plus immediate 7% wage hikes, 4% general wage increases in March of 2025, 2027 and 2028, and 4% lump-sum payments in March of next year and in 2026. Most significantly, perhaps, is the elimination by the end of the contract of the unpopular two-tier wages initiated in 2005, when new hires were paid less than existing workers.
Other terms include paid parental leave doubled to 80 hours, improved layoff pay (to $170/week), and the company increasing its matches to workers’ retirement contributions from 50% to 75%, according to Decatur Local 751. Now headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caterpillar in 2022 posted profits of $6.7 billion on $59.4 billion in sales, the corporation reported.
Dem establishment kills dark-money ban
In a little-noticed action, the Democratic National Committee defeated a progressive bid to ban “dark money,” especially in party primaries.
Former Communications Workers President Larry Cohen helped launch the proposal.
“The influx of dark money and corporate interests have turned the DNC into a (expletive) show,” said Cohen, who’s now Chair of Our Revolution, a successor to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Democratic presidential campaign. “We need to get money out of politics and deliver the party back to the people.”
Ex-union organizer vs. ex-schools chief face off in Chicago mayoral race
Two men trained as educators and running for mayor of Chicago as Democrats advanced in that city’s February elections. Among many differences are that one is a former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union and the other a one-time CEO of Chicago Public Schools. A runoff this month will be between Brandon Johnson, a 46-year-old progressive Cook County Commissioner who previously worked as a Chicago public school teacher before becoming a labor organizer, and Paul Vallas, a 69-year-old neoliberal and former head of Chicago’s school system who apparently never worked in a classroom, instead running state and municipal budget offices.
Vallas finished with 34% of the vote and Johnson finished second with 20%. Incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot finished with 17%.
Good news and bad in high-profile strikes. The Teamsters’ Unfair Labor Practice strike at Archer-Daniels-Midland in Decatur continues; 250 HarperCollins workers in editorial, publicity, sales, marketing, legal and design work represented by the UAW settled that dispute in February after a three-month work stoppage; and some two years after striking Warrior Met Coal, the United Mine Workers last month notified the company of its “unconditional offer to return to work.”
Unions are road to good jobs for Black workers, panel says. Top Labor Department officials, union leaders and rank-and-file Black workers last month said unions are the road to the middle class for Black Americans demanding good jobs and an end to ingrained racism. Conversely, added new Labor Secretary Julie Su, workers in Right-To-Work states finish at the bottom in pay, benefits and safety on the job.
The entire session, part of DOL’s Good Jobs Initiative, is online here