OSHKOSH, Wisconsin Oct 13 (Reuters) - Oshkosh Corp
has been a rare lifeline for the beleaguered United Auto
Workers, one of the few American manufacturers to have added
significantly to its ranks of well-paid union workers in a
brutal decade for factory hands.But now, as the UAW renews conciliatory contracts with
major automakers that have dismissed tens of thousands of
hourly workers, union employees are turning against Oshkosh.Tim Jacobson, 32, is among the workers who have rejected a
new contract forged by union leaders with the maker of military
vehicles and fire trucks. They are marching in the streets of
this university city on Lake Winnebago to denounce an employer
that has nearly doubled its UAW staff to 3,100 over the
five-year span of its last union contract.Jacobson himself was hired by Oshkosh two years ago, less
than a month after he was laid off from a nearby Harley
Davidson plant.”What’s disgusting?” Jacobson shouts, carrying an American
flag as he leads a line of 150 workers at a recent rally
downtown. “Union busting,” the crowd responds.This seemingly paradoxical labor standoff stems from
grievances almost unique to Oshkosh, whose profits have been
flush in recent years, and from a broader animus between labor
and management, both nationally and in particular in Wisconsin,
where a clash over the power of public-sector unions transfixed
the country over the summer.”Frankly, a lot of people here are pissed off,” Jacobson
said. Workers complain that the new contract erodes work rules,
security and seniority rights - such as a demand that workers
can be required to work up to ten Saturdays per year.
Particularly galling to them is the company’s call for more
temporary, non-union positions. When Oshkosh sought union
approval to hire as many as 300 temporary workers starting in
2013 as part of its original contract offer, the workforce
rejected it.The most recent rejection, on Saturday, was the second in a
week. The company had offered as much as an 8.5 percent raise
and $2,000 signing bonus to offset to rising healthcare
premiums. Oshkosh had attempted to craft a similar deal in
2010, a year before the contract’s expiration, and met
resistance then as well.An outright strike is unlikely. UAW and Oshkosh officials
returned to the bargaining table on Wednesday. A third deal,
without any demands for temporary worker provisions, will
likely be handed to workers this weekend, according to people
familiar with the talks. These people expressed confidence that
the third attempt for ratification will work.If it goes through, the victory for the UAW could well be
overshadowed by friction it is facing with a much bigger
member, Ford Motor Co .Dissent isn’t a new phenomenon for the UAW. In Detroit -
home of the union’s core constituency - workers have shown a
willingness to vote down automaker contracts in even the worst
of times. And now, as Ford seeks ratification for a new deal
that includes lucrative bonuses, there is widespread concern
that workers there will vote no. As of Thursday, two Ford
factories had rejected a proposed four-year deal, throwing its
ratification into doubt.And with protestors on the streets of Oshkosh, Wisconsin
where even the deep erosion of the industrial heartland has
been kept at bay, the thread of distrust sewn into
labor-management relations is proving difficult to sever.Oshkosh’s desire to bring in temps follows a pattern set by
most of the nation’s industrial heavyweights, such as
Caterpillar Inc, who want to meet shorter-term production needs
without having to bring on another crop of permanent employees.
Workers here firmly believe this will lead to an inevitable
loss of union jobs.”Our members have been getting very angry out there,” UAW
Local 578 President Nick Nitscke recently said while standing
in the lobby of the Oshkosh hotel, the site of the labor
negotiations. He pointed to a street corner where hundreds of
workers have protested several times in recent weeks. “They do
not want anything to do with temp workers.”PICKET FEVERThis schism between the workers and their union has many
outside observers scratching their heads, coming as it does
with the rest of the country plagued by economic malaise.Oshkosh has been on a roll thanks to winning big contracts
to build military vehicles in recent years, though it now faces
new headwinds as government-spending cuts and increased
competition squeeze the defense industry. Management has been
hitting this theme hard.In a letter accompanying its first offer to UAW workers
last month, Chief Executive Charles Szews said, “the company’s
offer takes into consideration today’s economic realities for
our principal customer, the U.S. Department of Defense, which
is facing hundreds of billions of dollars in budget
reductions.” Workers are largely dismissive of that outlook.Like many others in the area, Rep. Gordon Hintz, a Democrat
representing Oshkosh, sees the current conflict as at least
partially influenced by the protests over public-sector unions
that polarized public opinion, just 87 miles to the south in
Madison. The Occupy Wall Street movement is also energizing
workers, he said. “Does Wisconsin have picket fever? Yes, I
think there is a little of that.”A broader anxiety is also underpinning the workers’
resistance, says Mike Schroeder, a longtime Oshkosh worker
recently elected as a chief bargaining steward. “People have
not gotten the entire story of what is really going on here.
This isn’t really about money,” he said. “This is about job
security.”A significant portion of Oshkosh’s workers here were hired
as the company was scrambling to fill orders from the
Department of Defense, while other Wisconsin manufacturers —
including Kohler Co., Harley Davidson, and Mercury Marine -
were laying people off and, in some cases, hiring more temps.
As a result, Oshkosh was able to hire skilled manufacturing
workers who harbored a deep resentment toward non-unionized
employees doing short-term work.
“As we consider where our mortgage market is in the future, there may be a role for the government,” Representative Spencer Bachus, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told the Mortgage Bankers Association.Still, Bachus, who has helped lead a Republican effort to eliminate taxpayer support for mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said it was important to reduce the government’s footprint in housing finance.”We should be stepping out of the way and allowing the private market to take over with as limited a number of regulations and restrictions as possible,” he said.Democrats and Republicans alike agree the U.S. system of housing finance needs to be revamped. They disagree on the extent to which government support should be maintained.Mortgage industry executives said in later sessions at the conference an overhaul of the government’s role in the mortgage market will happen, just not in the near future.”I don’t expect we’ll get any real insights into that anytime soon,” said Michael Heid, Wells Fargo & Co’s home mortgage president.Currently, through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, the government backs about 90 percent of all new mortgages. The level of future government support will be determined by legislative changes that could take years to enact.In February, the Obama administration outlined three potential approaches to revamping housing finance, ranging from privatizing the system to limiting government-guaranteed mortgages to low and moderate income borrowers.On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the administration was considering a new set of legislative ideas to try to jump-start debate on shrinking the government’s role.”I don’t know what will be possible in terms of legislating in the next 18 months or so. We would like to get that process moving,” he said without offering a timeline on how quickly the administration might move.Policymakers are wary of moving too quickly to withdraw government support given the housing sector’s extreme weakness. The administration has been pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator to take steps to make it easier for struggling borrowers to refinance their mortgages.Bachus took note of the weakness of the U.S. housing market and said he would not interfere with new policies under consideration, nor would he use obstructionist politics if there was an increased momentum to fix the housing market.”I will not let ideology detract of any reasonable attempt of the government to play a positive role,” he said. “We aren’t going to get out of this until the housing market recovers,” Bachus added, referring to the sluggishness of the overall economy.
