Milwaukee Area Technical College is being asked by a labor union to halt a customized welder-training program that union members say is preparing nonunion workers to replace them at Caterpillar Inc.'s South Milwaukee manufacturing plant in case of a strike next month.
Caterpillar, a well-known producer of heavy machinery and equipment, has enrolled about 25 nonunion employees in the program, which was specially designed to meet the company’s needs. The union, United Steelworkers Local 1343, which has represented workers at the plant for 70 years, considers this a “scare tactic” to prepare for labor negotiations between the two sides in early April, said Ross Winklbauer Sr., the union’s subdistrict director.
United Steelworkers asked college officials on Wednesday to stop the program and to return any training materials to Caterpillar, to avoid being “used as a pawn in Caterpillar’s union-busting games,” Mr. Winklbauer said.
Kathleen G. Hohl, the college’s communications director, confirmed that the college’s president had received the union’s request, in a letter, but she said she did not know when a response would be issued. “As of today, to my knowledge, there’s no plan to stop or discontinue the training program,” she said.
Ms. Hohl said the college had contracted with Caterpillar to offer the program, which she called “an example of MATC responding to local business needs.”
The program began on February 11 and is slated to end on March 22, about a week before the union and Caterpillar sit down for their first contract talks since the company took over the plant as part of its purchase of Bucyrus International Inc., which makes mining equipment.
A Public College ‘in the Cross Hairs’
Faculty members at the technical college view its deal with Caterpillar as a “bargaining chip,” said Michael D. Rosen, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Mr. Rosen, an economics professor, said several welding instructors had turned down the opportunity to teach the nonunion employees, whom he called “scabs.”
“The instructors felt like they were being asked to train people to take the jobs of their colleagues,” he said, adding that many of the union workers had attended the technical college. “The last thing we want to do is train people to take the jobs of the blue-collar middle class.”
Mr. Rosen said Caterpillar was “putting a public institution in the cross hairs of their own labor dispute.” He said it’s unfair to the faculty.
Ms. Hohl said she was unaware that any instructor had refused to teach, adding that the training course is being taught by an “incumbent instructor.”
The training is for current nonunion workers, not outside replacement workers, Jim Baumgartner, a Caterpillar spokesman, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Caterpillar takes precautions when it begins any type of labor negotiation, he said, but the company is “hopeful there won’t be a work stoppage.”
The company took another cautionary step recently when it brought in managers from other plants around the country and had them shadow the Milwaukee employees, Mr. Winklbauer said. Union employees have been told to train the visitors in manufacturing work, “up to and including allowing them to run their jobs,” he said.
“I’ve been involved in contracts since 1985 and done well over 30 contract negotiations,” Mr. Winklbauer said. “I’ve never seen a company stoop to do what they’re doing: intimidating workers, scaring workers, and telling them they’ve got replacements. We haven’t even sat down across the table to exchange proposals.”
Mr. Winklbauer said the 800-member union’s relationship with the plant’s former owners was “nothing but cordial,” adding that he could not recall his union’s going on strike in the last 20 years.
“Judging from its training of these potential replacement workers and the company’s long history of confronting unions, we already know that these negotiations will be tough,” Mr. Winklbauer wrote in a memorandum to union employees, citing Caterpillar’s advertisement last year for replacements during a strike at a plant in Joliet, Ill. “When negotiations begin, we will be ready to address issues raised by the company in good faith, and expect Caterpillar to be prepared to address the concerns we bring to the table.”