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Merrimack Valley
Malden union rejects contract, 70 will lose jobs; Larger union accepts
Published: March 3, 2007
Seventy of the most skilled employees at Malden Mills will be without jobs when the company changes hands next week, the result of a vote not to accept a contract one member called a "slap in the face."
Members of the Area Trades Council voted 47-15 Thursday to reject the contract, which would have frozen wages for two years and required workers to pay a larger portion of their health insurance. The contract also would have done away with paid sick time and required workers to pitch in for life insurance.
The 500 members of Local 311, another union at Malden Mills, voted by a nearly 2-1 margin to accept the contract. They have been guaranteed employment with Polartec LLC, the company Malden Mills will become when Philadelphia-based Chrysalis Capital Partners purchases it for $44 million, likely next week.
But the members of the Area Trades Council will be laid off and must reapply for their jobs - with no guarantees - since they rejected the company's proposal.
"I think it's a big slap in the face that they dropped this contract (on us)," said chief shop steward Scott Albis. "People are going to die over this. They're not going to have health insurance."
"We have a heart recipient, who had a heart transplant. We have a person with a kidney transplant," he said.
Albis, an electrician at Malden Mills for 30 years, said 'anger' is too tame a word to describe the feelings of Area Trades Council members. The workers will have to reapply for their jobs, provided those jobs are even available. Neither union organizer Richard Monks nor Malden Mills CEO Michael Spillane could say for sure if they would be. Spillane said there are no plans to negotiate with the union. Monks said that was one of the reasons the contract was rejected.
Malden Mills, $130 million in debt, filed for bankruptcy Jan. 10. A federal judge earlier this week approved the sale to Chrysalis.
Area Trades Council members are aware of the ramifications of their decisions, but were livid over the conditions of the contract, the denial of negotiations and the eight days they were given to make a decision, Monks said. The brazen vote will come as a surprise to many, Monks said, but not those who know the workers personally.
"I think what people don't understand, and often downplay, is the importance of maintaining some dignity," he said. "It's a resounding vote. It's a definite vote. It really expresses both the anger and frustration of the group."
Members of the Area Trades Council voted 47-15 Thursday to reject the contract, which would have frozen wages for two years and required workers to pay a larger portion of their health insurance. The contract also would have done away with paid sick time and required workers to pitch in for life insurance.
The 500 members of Local 311, another union at Malden Mills, voted by a nearly 2-1 margin to accept the contract. They have been guaranteed employment with Polartec LLC, the company Malden Mills will become when Philadelphia-based Chrysalis Capital Partners purchases it for $44 million, likely next week.
But the members of the Area Trades Council will be laid off and must reapply for their jobs - with no guarantees - since they rejected the company's proposal.
"I think it's a big slap in the face that they dropped this contract (on us)," said chief shop steward Scott Albis. "People are going to die over this. They're not going to have health insurance."
"We have a heart recipient, who had a heart transplant. We have a person with a kidney transplant," he said.
Albis, an electrician at Malden Mills for 30 years, said 'anger' is too tame a word to describe the feelings of Area Trades Council members. The workers will have to reapply for their jobs, provided those jobs are even available. Neither union organizer Richard Monks nor Malden Mills CEO Michael Spillane could say for sure if they would be. Spillane said there are no plans to negotiate with the union. Monks said that was one of the reasons the contract was rejected.
Malden Mills, $130 million in debt, filed for bankruptcy Jan. 10. A federal judge earlier this week approved the sale to Chrysalis.
Area Trades Council members are aware of the ramifications of their decisions, but were livid over the conditions of the contract, the denial of negotiations and the eight days they were given to make a decision, Monks said. The brazen vote will come as a surprise to many, Monks said, but not those who know the workers personally.
"I think what people don't understand, and often downplay, is the importance of maintaining some dignity," he said. "It's a resounding vote. It's a definite vote. It really expresses both the anger and frustration of the group."
Monks met with Spillane yesterday morning to deliver the union's decision. At that time, he learned that union members, should they not be rehired, will not receive continuing health benefits under the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA.
Spillane said that is because Malden Mills will essentially cease to exist as a company and therefore cannot pay health benefits.
"I'm disappointed and I'm concerned for them," Spillane said yesterday. "It was in their hands to make a decision and they've made a decision."
Albis said employee cuts should have come from management and not from laborers who have committed their careers to Malden Mills while accepting low raises. Albis said he has seen his wages increase 1 percent in seven years.
"After my deductions, I'm embarrassed to tell you what I bring home," he said.
The Area Trades Council members are the highest-paid laborers at Malden Mills. They include electricians, mechanics and knit technicians who service and maintain the factory's sewing machines. Local 311, a member of national organization Unite Here, represents production workers.
Spillane said he was "pleased" that Unite voted to accept the contract. "And we look forward to working together."
