Sappi workers vote to authorize strike
November 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
United Steelworkers Local 11-63 members voted Tuesday to authorize a strike at Cloquet’s Sappi Fine Paper mill.
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Sappi workers vote to authorize strike
49 Comments
Be nice if the writer explained the rationale for authorizing a strike.
Hey strikers – you might have legitimate grounds or you might think you have Sappi over a barrel but a global co can still afford to walk away from Cloquet. Can you afford to live without that paycheck? Winter heating bills, Xmas coming, health insurance, bad job market in the timber industry. You had really better sort yourselves out or the market will.
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Trust me there are a lot of people willing to work those jobs if you dont want them. In this economy dont expect alot of public support and for most the jobs they work are not transferable. So think twice before you bite the hand that feeds you.
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The basic problem with the steelworkers union is that they are always looking for a confrontation. They don’t care about what is realistic, or fair, or even what is good for their members. They were willing to sacrifice the Sappi employees at Muskegon, just to look tough. A sad excuse for a group that claims to have its member’s interests at heart.
The situation is this. Sappi is investing a pile of money in the Cloquet facility. The Steelworker’s Union thinks that this is the opportune time to try to extort something from them. The days when unions actually fought for the underprivileged are long gone. There are plenty of folks in and around Duluth who could benefit from some representation. But the steelworkers just take aim at what they perceive as someone with money and plan to put, figuratively, put a gun to their head.
Sappi has a history of staring down unions worldwide. I doubt that they will do any different here in Minnesota. The rank and file may wish to consider how much of their own livelihood they are willing to sacrifice to a pissing contest between the thugs in the USW and a foreign corporation.
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In this economy, why not just be glad you have a job?
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Millionaire shareholders? Anyone with a 401K or other non-pension retirement plan is a shareholder in corporations like this. Personally, I’m far from being a millionaire, but those profits you’re so against go into not only my retirement plan, but multitudes of others as well, most likely even into the workers who are complaining.
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Do you really think your union leaders go home to their 1500 sq. foot ranch-style house via their 1996 Saturn?
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Paul….I don’t want to bring you back down to earth. You stated…. “Highly ambitious and courageous people tirelessly pursue and get these “really good” jobs in the area (i.e. Sappi, Calumet, etc.) for a reason. For the Sappi employees to let the Company take away what the job IS makes it just a “job-job” like all the others!”…. Now that might be true to a point….What happens if you fail and the mill shuts down? Guess what? All those “courageous people” will be cleaning toilets and asking if you want fries with your burger. Superwood just closed…Northwest shut down the maintenance base….the taconite plant in Silver Bay just had a layofff….the paper mill in Sartel closed not too long ago. So before you dig your heels in…..you could all wind up in the big pool of former workers who are now on the outside looking in. I’m guessing your union leaders will all be employed no matter what happens.
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I’m sure you are a good hardworking family person just like those at Sappi. It’s sad that we don’t have more good paying jobs in this area. I’m not anti-union….just realistic. We are in a global economy…and the demand for paper is going down. The economy doesn’t run on paper anymore it runs electronically. Yes…you could go out and find a new job if you lost the one you have. I would guess you would be taking a huge pay cut and would be lucky to find a job with any benefits. But look how many people are out of work in this area. Magnitation just announced they were building a pellet plant over in Indiana rather than locate in our area. The point is the pool of good paying jobs has been going down for the past 40 + years in our area. For that matter good jobs across this country are hard to find. So if you still have one of these jobs you are both hardworking and fortunate. Hope the strike can be avoided!
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I too hope that the strike can be avoided…….
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Trixie, you got your answer from the guy up above. He’s complaining about having benefits cut (to levels more like you or I might have)and about having a contract that guarantees pay increases every year. Seriously – you are going to complain about a contract that guarantees you pay increases every year????? That sums up union mentality right there, entitlement, entitlement, entitlement.
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look what the unions did for Hostess…….. great job
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Paul U., sorry buddy but you are wrong. Sappi isn’t going to roll over and play dead to the thugs. The Steelworkers have partnered with the Sierra Club, which fights every single natural resource economic development project in our area. While the rank and file still have their chance to reverse their vote and keep a job, USWA District 11 Director Bob Bratulich will still keep his job, paying him approximately $175,000 per year and sub-district director John Rebrovich will still keep his job at approximately $125,999 per year, whether the Sappi rank and file return to work or not. You workers are darn stupid if you follow your leadership. You deserve to lose your jobs and others willing to take them happily can start a new life. Remember what happened at Conwed?
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look what the unions did to the Postal Service
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You are absolutely right we should all race to the bottom. Instead of this “I don’t have it, so they should not have it either” attitude, how about “They have it, I should have it too!”
Just because you don’t have some benefit that someone else has, you want to take it from them. How about getting it for yourself. All workers should be able to provide for their families, have a retirement and have health care!
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Hey you Steelworkers at Sappi. Think about what you are doing to the loggers that supply you with raw material in order for you to have a job. What happens to those hard working families when you play your power games? Are you folks going to bring groceries to the houses of the loggers who will be out of work? Are your union leaders going to give them strike benefits because you are striking? Are their children going to have to go without this Christmas because you put them out of work? Unions are supposed to be socially conscientious, but the Steelworkers Union has become the most crass and cruel labor organization in the world! Think about it. We are too small a region to think only about ourselves and our 4 wheelers, big boats, snowmobiles, gun collections, trips to the Bahamas and Hawaii and Las Vegas. Come on, you can work this out with Sappi, there are many people affected by this action. And it seems as if you don’t care about them!
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Paragraphs are free here by the way.
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Don’t go on strike. It’s a huge mistake in this economy. Workers aren’t in a position to win and management knows it. This is not the right time to make this move.
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Lets be real here. How’s is it working out for the Crystal Sugar workers in the Western part of the state? This is not a good time to strike.
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Please, educate all of us. When is a “good time” to strike?
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Strike 101 … The best time to strike is when the economy is doing well, jobs are plentiful, and unemployment rates are low.
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Right answer.
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Does anyone know how far apart labor and management are? I mean as far as pay and benefits go? Heaven forbid the newspaper would do a complete story.
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Price fixing and collusion by management: Illegal and punishable by law.
Price fixing and collusion by employees: Labor unions.
I hope they strike. I’ll be first in line to apply for a job.
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Just stay at your garbage job now. That’s all that will be left for you after the Company takes everything from you..
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Paul please inform us lowlife non union people how Calumet employees have been “destroyed” by management. I know someone who recently started there and he quote “Can’t believe how much money he gets paid to do as little as he does”. And this guys is a hard worker – he absolutely can’t believe the lack of work ethic that his fellow union employees at Calumet have. If he were to try and introduce a new idea that would improve a process or potentially save the company some money, the old union dogs would run him out and blacklist him because they don’t want to have to work one ounce harder, even if it would save the company time and money.
Actually Paul U. I am non union and very successful, and am still thankful every day to have a job in this economy. No guaranteed raises for me, my company rewards me when I perform well and when they are doing well financially. If I don’t like it, I go find a different job – that’s how the real world works.
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Finally!!! Common sense. I am in a union too and that is exactly the way it is. Do as little as you can and whine when asked to contribute a little more. File a greivance is the battle cry.
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Check Sappi’s stock price. Down almost 85% since 2007. Was nearly $20 a share. Now $3.
But let’s not worry about the fiscal health of the employer….If Hostess taught us anything, it is that people before profits DOES NOT WORK. Liberal lackeys like Ranger and Paul don’t understand that you can have a company with revenues in the billions and still lose money.
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Good point WW…..paper is slowly fading away. That’s why Sappi is investing in the mill to produce new products. The workers at Sappi should be happy to have a job. And don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can’t be replaced. Anyone can be replaced….sad but true. Sure….if replacement workers are hired they may not be able to match the production levels by current workers. I’m sure over time production would run quite well. Think before you walk!
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If our state government actually had some testes swinging between its legs they would allow MN farmers to grow hemp, which could benefit companies like Sappi, and its workers, along with the area.
Hundreds of uses, good for the environment, easy to grow, could get farmers off subsidies and also lesson demand on corn (thus potentially lowering food prices for families), so of course it’ll never happen.
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Heard this morning Crystal Sugar union employees, who have been off the job for 16 months are now voting again for the fourth time on the very same contract they voted down the first time. Now you tell me who is the winner here.
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Even if they agree on the contract it will be months before the workers are transitioned back into the work place. The company orchestrated this perfectly. They had seven years to plan for it.
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It’s in the back-to-work agreement. If passed they will slowly be called back to work as needed. They don’t just go back to work on Monday.
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John: It’s not a matter of wanting what they have. It’s a matter of fundamentally disagreeing with the heavy-handed manner in which organized labor operates. Artificially inflating wages, benefits and pension plans over the years has caught up with the employers–especially in the area of health care.
The workers can go ahead and strike if they want…..the company has to remain profitable, lest they cease to exist. “People before profits” sounds like a good mantra, but it is unworkable as a business plan.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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In the good old days, makers of paper could count on demand increasing in line with advertising spending, and could plan capacity expansions. With advertising dollars flowing increasingly to nonprint media in many markets (i.e. Internet), this correlation has weakened, and plant closures have become more common than expansions. Sappi’s shrinking margins have borne witness to the changing times. It’s difficult to pass on rising costs – price increases meet with resistance from customers struggling with their own cost concerns. Low-priced Asian competition remains a threat and long-term outlook for catalogs looks less than rosy. Hope the union members can see the big picture and appreciate the declining demand for their product.
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Speaking of the “good old days” bargining in good faith was the accepted norm and both sides had respect for each other. Then one side or the other started to lie and take advantage. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a company say the’ve got no money, and the contract is settled. Then a few days later the bigwigs celebrate by giving huge multi-million dollar bonuses to themselves. What a slap in the face to workers. If it wasn’t for workers buying things there would be no company, if it wasn’t for the company there would be no workers. To minimize the impotance of people that work for a living is like cutting your own throat.
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Quagmire: Examples of these bonus-mongering companies and bigwigs please.
Keep in mind: Executives and management typically have contracts as well. If the contract stipulates a bonus for achieving certain criteria or benchmarks, who are you to denigrate their hard work and sacrifices?
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