201 & Ametek Reach Tentative NMM Agreement - Update: Contract Ratified

Update: The Ametek NMMA Contract has been officially ratified per membership vote. 

Voting took place Tuesday, March 30th from 9:30am - 10:30am at Ametek.

And yes. We dumped the Lump Sum Bonus.

IUE/CWA Local 201 & Ametek Reach Tentative NMM Agreement

March 26th, 2021

Your Local 201 Bargaining Committee has reached a Tentative Agreement with Ametek Aerospace.  The initial proposals from the Union were 18 pages. The Company’s proposal was a single half page of concessions and a $250 bonus.  The Company proposed elimination of Article 20, Reduction in Force D. which gives recall rights to laid off members before the Company can hire off the street.  The Company proposed elimination of Article 23(C) the .25% Service Wage Increase, and one year of Lump Sum Bonuses instead of wage increases and no improvements.  Through tough negotiations we were able to take those concessions off the table and win significant improvements. 

Below is the Bargaining Committee summary of the Tentative Agreement.  We agreed to no concessions, cuts, or givebacks.  Wages, vacation, recall rights, and other items were improved.  We encourage all members to read this summary and review the Tentative Agreement in its entirety (distributed to every member today at our Ametek contract meeting). The Bargaining Committee unanimously recommends ratification of the Tentative Agreement to the membership.

                                                                        Summary

Article 1: New Hire Orientation

Your Bargaining committee secured a one-hour new hire orientation session to welcome new hires into the Union, answer questions, and introduce people to a Union shop environment.

Article 6 Health and Safety Committee

Union positions on the safety committee are no longer limited to 2.  If more members want to get involved they have more ability to do so.  The Safety Committee should be equal parts management and Union.

Article 7 Leave of Absence Rules A. Return to Work from Illness or Injury

 It was unreasonable to the Bargaining Committee that members returning from a Leave of Absence related to an illness or injury had no access to their sick and personal time for 60 days.  The Tentative Agreement straightens that out. If you are coming back from an illness or injury related leave you will have access to your sick and personal time immediately upon return. 

In the previous contract, if you returned to work in the last quarter of the year and were denied vacation requests the Company could CHOOSE whether to pay you out or not for unused vacation.  This Tentative Agreement ensures those returning to work from illness or injury in the last quarter of the year, will be paid out if they are not approved to use their vacation time.  If your vacation is denied within 60 days in the last calendar quarter, it will be paid out.

Under the old contract language if those returning from illness and injury leave and were unable to perform their job “satisfactorily despite medical clearance” the next step could have been hitting the street.  The Tentative Agreement now spells out the Company must attempt to provide reasonable accommodations to keep that person working safely in the shop. 

Article 8 Seniority E.

Your Bargaining Committee fought to increase the amount of time a member can be out on Worker’s Compensation before breaking service.  Worker’s Compensation injuries happen at work.  If a member needs more than a year to heal from a work injury, they should not break service.  In the old contract a member out on a Workers Compensation claim had a year to return before breaking service.  In the Tentative Agreement, a member has 18 months to return before they break service.

Article 11 Vacation A.

In the old language, members with 0-5 years of service received 2 weeks vacation. The Bargaining Committee argued that the flexibility that the New Manufacturing Model Agreement offers the Company needs to go both ways.  Our members deserve more work/life balance.  The Bargaining Committee had to make compromises in several areas to achieve what we consider a major improvement in vacation time.  The Tentative Agreement still offers 2 weeks vacation to new employees.  Those with 2 years of service will now get another week of vacation, 3 weeks. At 10 years members will now have 3.5 weeks of vacation.  The higher service brackets remain unchanged after 15 years (4weeks) 25 years (5weeks). Everyone covered in this agreement is under 5 years of service, making this a very significant improvement.

Article 18 Strikes and Lockouts

While we are under contract there shall still be no strikes or lockouts per Article 18.  However, should the Company fail to comply with the grievance procedure or an Arbitration Award, members will have the right to vote to strike under this Tentative Agreement. This new strong language will help ensure the Company follows the terms of our contract.  

Article 20 Reduction in Force

The Company wanted to eliminate your right back to your job following a layoff.  Based on Ametek’s history of outsourcing and layoffs, the Bargaining Committee refused to accept the Company’s proposal.  Instead, we retained our 12 month recall rights, and made a minor improvement to the recall language: extending 18 month recall rights to those without 2 written warnings in the 2 years preceding a lay off.

Article 23A Minimum Wage Rates

Everybody hired under the NMMA was hired for wages higher than those laid out in the Contracts minimum rate.  Still we fought for improvements to the minimum starting rates to raise the floor.  The new NMMA  classification of Materials Control Coordinator was added at a $21.50 minimum rate.

Article 23- Annual Performance Review and Service Wage Increase

It was clear that members number one priority was a better wage package. The Company was clear they were not interested in any improvements to wages, only cuts. While the Union pointed out many flaws with the current merit based incentive system, the Company refused to budge without replacing General Wage Increases with Lump Sums.  The Bargaining Committee shifted focus to improving the merit-based system.  The average score of the Group was 3.3, so getting improvements directly around that number was our number one priority. It was not until late in the final session, that we received the improvement in the 2.6-3.0 merit score range we felt we needed to reach agreement. In the old system if you scored between 1.1-3.0, the company had full discretion to give you anywhere between a .5% to 2.5% wage increase.  We were determined to narrow this gap and get a more definitive percentage window. This Tentative Agreement contains clearly defined brackets that tie scores to percentage wage increases to remove the uncertainty and discretion that the old system allowed.  Your Bargaining Committee believes the Tentative Agreement contains a fairer system.  It contains improvements in the score ranges that the vast majority of members have received the past 2 years. And it removes the ability for the company to give .5% to the lowest score a member has actually received. 

In the proposed new language if you score from a 2.6-3.0 you will receive 2.75% plus the .25% yearly Service Wage Increase (SWI) to amount to 3%. If you score between 3.1 and 3.5 you will get a 3% (3.25% w/ SWI).  If your review result is a 3.6-4 you will see a 3.5% (3.75% w/ SWI), a 4.1-4.5 score will receive a 4% (4.25% w/ SWI) and a 4.6 - 5 score will receive a 5% increase (5.25% w/ SWI).

Though the Company came into negotiations trying to eliminate the yearly .25% Service Wage Increase, it remains in the Tentative Agreement.

The old contract called for a Lump Sum Bonus one year instead of a General Wage Increase.  This language was removed and members will receive a wage increase every year in this Tentative Agreement.

Article 23D Skilled Training Incentives

All the Skilled Training Incentives were increased by $125 and J-STD Certified Trainer and Space Certified Trainer were added to the incentive structure.

Article 24 Benefits

No changes.

Bargaining Committee Recommends Ratification

The Bargaining Committee put in a hard fight to get these improvements and fend off concessions.  Without a Union at Ametek the Company could have forced it’s initial proposal or worse, without workers having any say.  On Tuesday March 30th, members will have the final say and vote on this Tentative Agreement.  Your Bargaining Committee feels this package represents the best offer that could be won at the negotiating table and unanimously recommend a “yes” vote to ratify this Agreement.

-       IUE-CWA Local 201 Bargaining Committee    -