Tehachapi News

Borax management, union slugging out contract

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Management and labor at the U.S. Borax plant in Boron are headed for a lockout or strike if contract negotiations don't show some signs of progress.

After eight weeks of sporadic talks spokesmen say both sides appear to have dug in their heels on the basic issue of union representation in the plant, which has a total workforce of 750 employees. Of those, 560 are union.

Seventy of the Borax employees live in the Greater Tehachapi area.

Company spokesman Jeff Flores says the changes they want are based on job assignments and promotions, employee performances, knowledge and skills as well as seniority.

U.S. Borax, part of the international London-based Rio Tinto Minerals and Rio Tinto Group, wants employees to have a choice about joining the union, Flores said.

“It's giving employees the freedom of choice about representation. Now it is compulsory to join the union, under a 40-year-old contract. We have new technologies at the plant.”

Union busting

International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 30 spokesman Craig Merrilees calls the company's position union busting.

“They are trying to get rid of the union,” Merrilees said. “They want whole sections of the plant to go non-union.”

The Rio Tinto parent group is sitting on $3.7 billion in profit this year while “whining to workers to sacrifice…,” Merrilees said.

“The workers at Borax are taking a stand for good jobs against one of the biggest and most powerful mining corporations in the world that apparently thinks they can push people around in the high desert,” Merrilees said from the ILWU office in San Francisco.

“They've gotten an education in the past few weeks. These workers have drawn a line and made it clear they are not going to be pushed around and abused by a big bully that is used to getting its way.”

Negotiations have been going on sporadically at a hotel in Palmdale.

The ILWU Local 30 contract at the Borax plant expired Nov. 4. The union employees now are working without a contract.

“The company was extremely disappointed when we offered to extend the current contract by 120 days and the union rejected the offer,” Flores said.

“By refusing to extend the current contract, the union sacrificed our offer of a 15 percent wage increase over an eight-year contract, plus a $3,000 signing bonus.”

Merrilees scoffed at the notion of 15 percent over eight years, saying it amounts to a 1.8 percent pay raise per year.

As for the $3,000 signing bonus, Merrilees said, “They take it away in concessions and give it back.”

Global economy

Flores said the worldwide economic situation is a factor in the structure of any new agreement.

“Worldwide sales [of borates] dropped more than 30 percent this year,” Flores said. “We need to change the way we operate to be globally competitive.”

The company currently is running an advertisement in the Tehachapi News for permanent replacement employees in positions from janitors to certified crane operators.

“These openings exist due to a strike, lockout or labor disturbance that might exist on or after Nov. 4, 2009,” the ad says.

The next scheduled negotiating session is Tuesday, Nov. 17 in Palmdale.

Among the union negotiators are Local 30 President Dave Liebengood and his brother Jack Liebengood, vice president.