But, with a physically demanding 13/1 schedule, parties were rare. With few exceptions, hourly employees, most of whom stood most of their shifts, were required to work 13 straight days with one day off, beginning in the late 1990s. Many worked double shifts. "You don't mind it if the business is dying, because you do what you have to in order to make it work," says Zeisloft, "but this was a profitable company, and there was always work."
During the past few years, Donnelley cut back on the 13/1 agreement, but would resort to new contract language that limited hourly workers to "only" 311 days a year. Families, especially the younger ones, became used to a good annual income. They did not get used to the reality that there was little family time or that there was significant physical and mental stress because of the work conditions. Even if there was a reduction of printing contracts, the company apparently had plans only to reduce forced overtime, not eliminate it. "We looked forward to June and October," says Zeisloft, "because those were the slowest times during the year, and we could be with our families more."
Blocking and Stalling
Management tended to "blame everything on the union," says Harris, who had been at the plant 32 years. Under the union contract is a three-step grievance process. If a problem couldn't be resolved at one of three levels it went to arbitration. Under Haddon, problems tended to be solved internally, says Mark Harris. But under Donnelley, there was "a lot of blocking and stalling," with some grievances taking as long as three years before going to arbitration. In some cases, says Harris, the union couldn't afford the cost of arbitration, especially when faced by a corporation that seemed to have endless legal resources and the desire to never admit it did anything wrong. Nevertheless, the union, says Zeisloft, "fought as hard for the non-union workers as it did for its own members."
The corporation's blatant anti-union attitude was clearly seen in 2007. The United Network International (UNI), a federation of more than 1,000 unions representing 20 million unionized workers on four continents, had sent three detailed letters to Thomas Quinlan to request a meeting to discuss workplace conditions in the corporation's overseas plants. The alliance specifically wanted to talk with the CEO about following the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation and various national laws about the rights to join a union, bargain collectively, and issues of discrimination and child labor. Quinlan ignored the letters. In May 2008, a delegation from UNI and the Teamsters went to the Chicago headquarters to meet with Quinlan. They left a letter of concern with an assistant; Quinlan had refused to meet with them.
The corporate attitude to workers, reflected in numerous ways in Bloomsburg, extended even after the closing was announced. On Friday, Sept. 2, the state sent a Rapid Response Team to Bloomsburg. The purpose was to give the workers information about numerous social services available, to discuss government benefits, including unemployment, and to help them find other work. At a preliminary meeting, with four union officers and three from Management, the team outlined what it wanted to do and to secure the company's assistance. According to those who were there, the Human Resources manager, who was also on the list to be terminated, asked how long the meeting with the workers would be. She was told it would be 90 minutes. "Can it be done after work hours," she asked, "because we have production goals to be met." Alan Robinson, of the state's Dept. of Labor and Industry, replied , "You're not going to like this answer. You can pay now or you can pay late." He was referring to the reality that the longer workers were unemployed the more RR Donnelley would be paying its share in unemployment taxes. "We were all surprised at her question," says Artley, but they were even more surprised by what she said later. Reaffirming a Management attitude, she suggested, "Can we send these [workers] back to the floor . . . because we have production goals to meet." The planning meeting ended at that point. "We stood outside just shaking our heads in disbelief," says Artley.
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