St. Louis-based firm agrees to novel pact with UNITE union

Per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Angelica Corp. of Chesterfield tentatively has settled an 18-month, $2.5 million labor dispute . . . .

Unite Here represents workers at about two-thirds of Angelica’s 35 linen-laundering facilities nationwide. Unite Here and Angelica have battled about wages, benefits, worker safety and the union’s efforts to organize. . . .

Late Tuesday, Angelica and Unite Here reached a tentative agreement. The proposed settlement outlines how the union will organize existing non-union facilities as well as future Angelica plants. It also settles contracts at seven Angelica facilities. . . .

What’s so novel here?

First, the agreement’s duration: 10-years. Perhaps not unheard of, but certainly at the long end for a union contract (more typically 3-5 years).

Second, neither the Post article nor the union’s website news story mentions the wages and benefits.

A company is unlikely to agree to a ten year contract including aggressive wage and benefit increases, given all the economic unknowns over such a long time span. A union also risks being on the down side of unforseeable economic developments (e.g., inflation outpacing scheduled wage increases).

The sources I read make it sound as if the biggest issue was not wages and benefits, but organizing the company’s nonunion facilities. Here a novel solution was reached. According to the Post:

Unite Here wanted Angelica to recognize workers who voted for union representation through card-check recognition, a practice that does not require a secret ballot, NLRB-supervised election. Angelica demanded NLRB elections, its right under the law.

Both sides said Tuesday’s agreement allows Angelica employees to freely vote on whether they want to be members of Unite Here. Two policies will govern those elections.

In right-to-work states, . . . Angelica agreed to card-check recognition.

In remaining states, Unite Here will organize future Angelica facilities with private, non-NLRB supervised elections.

There are four remaining Angelica plants that are non-union and located in states without right-to-work provisions. Two of those plants will adhere to each of the two policies.

So, reading between the lines, it sounds like the union traded an increased chance for more bargaining power 10 years down the road — assuming it succeeds in its organizing efforts — for less favorable wage and benefit improvements. And the company bought time. . .

Meanwhile, UNITE also claims victory in the Los Angeles Hotel Workers negotiations: “Los Angeles Hotel Workers Ratify Contract by 98 Percent, Settle $1 Million in Unfair Labor Practices”

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