Posted on 06/01/2008 6:27:38 PM PDT by janetjanet998
EAST PEORIA, Ill. (AP) -- The United Auto Workers union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Caterpillar Inc. over a smoking ban that goes into effect at all of its U.S. properties on Sunday.
The union claims the ban goes against guarantees in the UAW contract, and that such a policy shift is subject to collective bargaining.
The union says smoking has been a contractual privilege for 60 years.
Caterpillar, however, said it was time to end smoking at work.
"It would be unfortunate and disappointing if some employees decide to strike over the company's decision to prohibit smoking on Caterpillar campuses," said spokesman Dan Day, in a prepared statement. "Caterpillar cares about the health of its employees and wants to ensure that everyone who works on or visits Caterpillar property has access to the healthiest and safest work environment possible.
"Employees represented by the United Auto Workers who are unhappy with this policy have initiated the grievance procedure. We are cooperating with the UAW to address those grievances in the manner previously agreed to for such disputes."
Union bargaining chairman Bill Scott says the UAW is not encouraging any work stoppage over the issue. He noted the union and Caterpillar have a "no strike, no lockout" clause in their contract.
Caterpillar announced that it would forbid smoking on its properties late last year after Illinois, where the heavy equipment maker is based, passed a law that prohibited smoking in the work place and elsewhere.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board this month.
Smokers tend to have grievances over a lot of things.
The article is misleading...
Smoking is banned under IL LAW now.....indoors that isn’t what the issue is.....
CAT wants it banned everywhere..outside(many go outside to smoke during breaks, lunch etc)...in the parking lot...one can’t even smoke in their own cars now...from what I understand
The contract CAT/UAW signed says workers can smoke on the job(IL law overode that so they can’t smoke inside now though)
Presumably these union workers also scream and holler that they shouldn’t have to pay the full the cost of their medical insurance (some unions have gone ballistic at an initial proposal to make them pay ANY portion of their insurance cost!). Ask for a nanny to take care of you, and you’ll get a nanny making the rules you have to live by. Grow up and deal with it.
why doesn’t catiplliar just require that if you smoke you don’t get insurance or you have to pay an extra premium.
well they could do that when the contract expires in 2011(or 2010) or somehting like that..but this contract(signed in 2005) clearly states can smoke on the job in writing
don’t understand why they just don’t wait a couple of years before trying this and take smoking rights out of the next contract
I suspect this may be more of a union issue than a smoking issue. For the past twenty years or so, Caterpillar has been in the business of seeking payback for the UAW strikes of the 70’s and 80’s.
The unioin is already busted....way lower wages and no profit sharing..they blow it in the 80/90’s with idiotic strikes and CAT had revenge in the 2005 contract...<p.
the sad thing is many of CATS new generation workers are very hard working and get paid less then their older union spoiled brothers
The serious strike was in the early 90s and lasted 18 months.
Oh, don’t blame the no-smoking policy! I’m sure a lot of these guys were sniffing glue well before that.
The UAW played games with the Peoria economy for way too many years. I saw too many union families suffer because of this practice.
Frankly, I don't care if the union is a little uncomfortable. These people are always free to look for jobs with companies that are more permissive in their smoking rules.
Don't exclude the queers and their unhealthy life style. Wait a minute, it's illegal to even ask if an individual has that kind of life style.
Was that the strike where the union finally caved after the company posted record profits and better product quality?
All,
Your personal opinions on smoking really aren’t germane. Cat is attempting to ignore elements of a signed contract. These are exactly the issues where unions should be paying attention. If they spent more time on labor contract enforcement and less time on politics I imagine the public perception of unions would be more positive.
Thousands of union members had already crossed the picket line and were working when the strike ended.
This is good. Just go a little further and check for family diabetes history, gay life style(aids), weight of each individual, weight of spouse, weight of each child, alcohol usage, pot and other drug usage, political party registry, internet browser history, AND mental illness history going back 3 generations.
Well that would do it.
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