Workers of BorgWarner in Lansing, New York, ended their strike on Sunday, Sept. 22 after reaching a contract agreement with the automotive manufacturing plant.
BorgWarner’s new contract with workers was ratified on Sept. 21 with a 539-60 vote.
This comes after workers originally rejected a contract offer on Sept. 6, which prompted a strike that lasted a little over two weeks.
Representatives from BorgWarner did not respond to a request for comment.
The original contract offered by BorgWarner on Sept. 6 offered wage increases of a larger 22.5 percent over a four-year period. However, it would have decreased the benefit package employees would receive, resulting in a total wage increase of only 18.5 percent over four years.
John Cometti, a business agent of Teamsters Local 317 said that the total wage increase in the original contract offer was misleading because the company already gave workers a wage increase of $1 an hour at the time the contract was being offered.
“They only offered us [an] 18 percent [increase]. … We had already had that dollar,” Cometti said. “That should have been the starting point, … so that’s $1 that my members already had for a year.”
Cometti said that the new contract offer will give each worker a 21 percent wage increase on top of the extra $1 dollar an hour over four years as well as a $5,500 bonus for signing the contract.
With regards to overtime, Cometti also said that the new contract implements a seniority-based random round-robin system that prevents management from picking and choosing which workers work overtime.
Cometti also said that the new contract prevents raising the cost of health insurance and removed BorgWarner’s Premium Incentive Program, as the previous contract would have increased the cost of insurance for workers who did not adhere to the program. Under this program, employees earn points for meeting certain health goals, and the amount they pay is determined by the amount of points they accumulate. The less points they have, the more they have to pay.
“[BorgWarner was] looking at doubling their healthcare [costs],” Cometti said. “We were able to keep that at the regular price in the benefits package [and] we were able to keep the insurance from doubling.”
BorgWarner’s new contract will also include retroactive benefits coverage for striking employees after the company stripped health insurance from striking employees on Sept. 17.
Additionally, Cometti said that they were able to stop BorgWarner from taking away the perfect attendance policy from current eligible workers which gave four paid days off for meeting attendance quotas. This perfect attendance policy does not apply to workers hired after Jan. 1, 2025.
Cometti said workers also secured another floating holiday for Veterans Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth or during any of the hunting seasons.
Cometti emphasized that when handling contract negotiations as complicated as with BorgWarner, stopping losses may be prioritized over working toward gains.
“Sometimes it is what you are able to stop that is more important,” Cometti said.