UPDATED: Teamsters authorize strike at St. Paul Park refinery

December 23, 2013 by

Workers at Northern Tier refinery in St. Paul Park voted Dec. 16 to authorize their leadership to call a strike if the company continues to demand cuts that, workers say, “could dramatically undermine the safety of operations” at the facility.

Northern Tier is in contract negotiations with about 200 members of Teamsters Local 120 who work at the refinery. Their current contract expires Dec. 31.

If Local 120 members strike, it could affect the supply chain for more than 200 SuperAmerica retail outlets in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin that are owned or operated by Northern Tier. Additionally, Local 120 represents workers at SuperMom’s Bakery, which supplies SuperAmerica stores.

“If there is a strike, SuperAmerica customers will need to go elsewhere for fuel this winter,” Local 120 Business Agent Chris Riley warned.

Joe Riley, a Local 120 member who has worked at the refinery for more than 30 years, said he and his co-workers refuse to allow Norther Tier to put its own profits ahead of their safety on the job.

“Management’s proposals to eliminate jobs, cut wages as much as 40 percent and enforce other onerous changes to working conditions will drive trained professionals away from this very dangerous work,” Joe Riley said.

“In this line of business, we worry every day about an explosion or deadly leak. We just cannot work under the proposed conditions. It isn’t safe.”

*****UPDATE 01/14/14 – Local 120 members at Northern Tier refinery have voted to approve a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. The two sides struck a deal in the final hours before their previous contract expired Dec. 31.

Local 120 announced the tentative agreement on its website and claimed victory in the dispute, saying management backed away from its demands to cut staffing levels, which prompted safety concerns among workers.

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UPDATED: Drivers end strike at Minneapolis metal manufacturer

September 19, 2013 by
Teamsters walk the picket line outside Metal-Matic in Minneapolis.

Teamsters walk the picket line outside Metal-Matic in Minneapolis. (submitted photo)

After voting unanimously to reject management’s final contract offer, seven members of Teamsters Local 120 who work at Minneapolis-based Metal-Matic, Inc. went on strike Tuesday morning. They remained on the picket line this afternoon.

The workers, drivers for the steel-tubing manufacturer, rejected what Local 120 representative Bill Wedebrand called “extreme concessions” regarding their pension benefits. Not only does Metal-Matic want to get out of the workers’ pension plan, it wants workers to foot the bill – at a cost of $10,000 to $12,000 per employee, Wedebrand said.

“They have to cover the unfunded liability to get out of the pension, and they want to do it on the backs of the employees,” Wedebrand said. “There was a 100 percent vote to reject that proposal. People wanted something in return.”

What Metal-Matic offered, according to the union, was a small 401(k) match and annual raises of less than 2 percent.

The two sides have not met since the strike began. Negotiations opened last spring, and members of Local 120 had been working under the terms of a temporary extension to their previous contract.

Metal-Matic has two facilities in Minneapolis, but Local 120 has focused on establishing a 24-hour picket line at the company’s headquarters, 629 2nd St. SE.

Maintaining a round-the-clock presence is a challenge for a bargaining unit of seven employees. To volunteer your support for striking Metal-Matic workers, drop by the picket line or call Wedebrand at 651-343-1719.

“Fortunately, a lot of our members from other bargaining units have stepped up to the plate, and they’re helping picket,” Wedebrand said. “We’ll take any help we can get.”

UPDATE 9/20/13 – Teamsters Local 120 announced on its Facebook page this afternoon that the Metal-Matic strike ended earlier in the day.

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