KOHLER, Wis. (WTAQ-Wheeler) – Union workers at the Kohler Company are on strike for the first time since 1983.
All but six-percent of 18-hundred Auto Workers Union employees said no yesterday (Sunday) to what the famous bathroom fixtures maker called its “last, best, and final offer.”
That was a three-year deal with a 50-cent-an-hour wage hike each year for the higher of two tiers of employees.
Kohler also offered contract approval bonuses of at least one-thousand-dollars, to help cover the employees’ increases in health insurance costs.
Workers said Kohler is doing better after the Great Recession — when the union agreed to a wage freeze, lower pay for new workers, and higher health costs. Kohler says it’s “very disappointed” by the strike vote, and it plans to continue production.
The firm says it’s inviting employees to work today (Monday) at their current pay.
The walkout affects about 21-hundred union workers at Kohler. As union power declines, there are fewer private sector strikes.
The U-S Labor Department says there were eleven walkouts last year at plants with one-thousand or more employees. There were about 300 such strikes each year during the 1970s.
