OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Cummins workers in Oshkosh have been on strike for nearly a month, but the union is hopeful next week’s negotiations will be successful.
- On March 18, about 90 UAW Cummins employees began their strike.
- The union disagrees with Cummins' decision to hire temp workers and make Saturday shifts mandatory.
- Cummins and the local UAW leaders are set to meet between April 22 and 24.
The Cummins UAW employees started the strike after contract negotiations hit a stalemate.
“Our contract expired on the 29th of January, and so far we’ve met nine times in person and twice virtually,” Local 291 UAW President Ryan Compton says.
Cummins was unwilling to negotiate on two issues within the new contract, according to Compton: hiring temp workers and making Saturday shifts mandatory.
Compton says temp workers could weaken the union.
“They erode our membership, they erode our bargaining power,” he says. “We’re just very much against the whole system.”
Cummins already requires its employees to work a few Saturdays, according to Compton, but they want to add more in the new contract.
“Cummins preaches a work-life balance, but it just doesn’t seem that they want to practice what they preach,” Compton says.
Compton has worked for Cummins for 29 years and says he averages 45-55 hours a week.
He says Cummins met with the union once during the strike at the beginning of April, but no progress was made.
“My opinion is they have been told by corporate this is what we want, this is what we need, and you need to get it,” he says.
In a statement, Cummins says:
“We have been engaging in ongoing, good-faith negotiations with union representatives at our plant in Oshkosh. We remain committed to exploring all available options to reach a mutually acceptable agreement while maintaining transparent communication with employees, customers, and stakeholders. Our next meeting with union members is scheduled next week.
“I'm feeling very hopeful because we want to reach an agreement,” Compton says. “We want to get all the rank and file and allotment, all of us, back to work. We want to make this plant good, we want to help Cummins satisfy the customers, that's what we want. We want a deal."
