Work goes on at dealership, minus union workers
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 7:07 AM PDT
By Evan Caldwell
Printable version
E-mail this articleA strike by mechanics and parts workers at Columbia Ford entered its seventh week Monday, but the dealership is now using replacement workers to do oil changes and other small jobs.
"We are doing limited work," Pat Sari, president and general manager of the Longview dealership, said Monday. "We have to take care of cars and keep them in compliance."
He declined to say how many replacement workers have been hired.
Sari said he and union leadership "had limited communication" last week and "continue to set up some meeting dates to talk."
The two sides last met July 12 but "absolutely nothing happened, and we made no movement," Brian King, business representative for Teamsters Local 58, said last week.
Neither King nor representatives of the Machinists local 1350, which represents the repair shop workers, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Initially, 31 workers were on strike, but at least six have taken other jobs at equal or higher pay, King said. The remaining 25 workers continue to picket the dealership on Seventh Avenue.
The dispute is over how much workers should contribute to their health insurance coverage.
"We told him (Sari) then that he had to improve the offer to have a revote," King said, referring to a dealership request that the last offer be put to a union vote again. "We'll stay there as long as it takes. We think he won't be able to hire qualified people."
Trained workers "are highly sought after, and they have tens of thousands of dollars of tools that they have to buy for themselves," King said.
Columbia Ford is proposing to cap its monthly contributions to health coverage at $650 per individual for family coverage, leaving Teamsters workers to each pay about $100 a month. Currently, the workers pay $34 a month. Machinists' health care costs would increase to $133 a month.
However, the union has said that while the immediate cost increase is of a concern to the union, workers are especially wary of how much more they would pay as health insurance costs continue to escalate.
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