Pantagraph: Workers take Cat deal

[Tweed]

PEORIA -- United Auto Workers members approved a six-year contract Sunday with heavy equipment giant Caterpillar Inc., ending a nine-month stalemate that averted the bitter strikes that preceded their last labor agreement, the company said.
The deal covers about 9,000 workers at plants in Illinois, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, who stayed on the job without a contract as both sides continued talks that stalled over health care costs and wages. No vote totals were released.

Chief Caterpillar negotiator Chris Glynn called the contract "good news for our employees, business and communities."

........ later in the article and this is the part I'm curious about:

"Peoria-based Caterpillar thwarted those strikes by keeping plants running with salaried employees and replacement workers, a strategy the company vowed to repeat this time around. Union leaders feared a strike would create financial hardships for workers, who they said also would risk losing their jobs to replacements under current labor laws."

If the workers went on strike, they could have lost their jobs to the replacement workers? What kind of crap is this? Does anyone out there know what changes they are talking about? How did a Democratic controlled government loosen labor laws? We must have gotten something major in return or maybe this happened at the federal level.

[xBobx804]

1. Try googling:

amendment to the National Labor Relations Act. I used to know a lot more about labor law than I do now. Those are the laws that govern union and company rights. Also check out the National Labor Relations Board at NLRB.gov

[Tweed]

2. Thanks for the tip

I've seen the abbreviation NLRB before, but didn't know what it meant. I'll check it out.