by Stephen J. Lee
Herald Staff Writer
Union workers at the New Flyer in America bus plant in Crookston approved a new five-year contract Friday with the Winnipeg-based company that will give pay increases of 2.5 percent to 3.25 percent per year over the term of the agreement. The current contract expires Dec. 31.
The vote was 90 to 39 for the new pact, in a vote that required a simple majority, said Dave Rock, president of the Local 7304 of the Communications Workers of America that represents the 195 union employees at the plant.
While many members didn't vote, that's because it was clear it would pass based on union meetings, Rock said.
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"The ones who didn't want it were there," Rock said.
The new contract gives more days off with pay, including an "award day," given for good performance, he said. It also changes the language for overtime and increases vacation benefits, a company official said.
The wages go up 2.5 percent in each of the first three years, up 3 percent in the fourth year and up 3.25 percent in the fifth year, Rock said.
"It's a very healthy contract," Rock said. "Some said it's the best they have ever had."
In a news release, the head of New Flyer Industries, Inc., the parent company of New Flyer in America, hailed the vote.
"This new collective agreement is representative of the strong and continued partnership between New Flyer and the CWA," said Paul Soubry, New Flyer's President and Chief Executive Officer. "I would like to thank the CWA, their membership and the New Flyer team for a negotiation that was done professionally, constructively and efficiently by both parties."
The average wage at the plant is about $17 an hour, said Rock, who has worked there since 1998, about two years after it opened. The plant takes bus shells begun at the main New Flyer plant in Winnipeg and finishes the assembly on the big metro transit vehicles.
Of Crookston's five top employers, the New Flyer plant is "right in the middle" in terms of wages, Rock said.
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The largest employers in the city of nearly 8,000 are Riverview Health, the public school district, the University of Minnesota campus and American Crystal Sugar, as well New Flyer, city officials say.
The New Flyer plant has a total of nearly 300 employees, company officials said. New Flyer also has plants in St. Cloud, Minn. - which has a total bus-making operation, about twice the employees as the Crookston plant and a separate CWA contract that has two years remaining - and Elkhart, Ind., as well as Winnipeg. The company has about 2,300 total employees.
The cities of Grand Forks and Fargo bought buses from New Flyer this year.
