The nine Teamsters who work at adhesive-manufacturer Henkel in Berkeley ratified their new four-year contract on February 15, and Business Rep Stu Helfer reports that it may be the best contract they’ve ever had. While the company wanted to pull this group out of the Teamster health and welfare plan and move them to the same company plan that the rest of its employees around the nation work under, the Berkeley group stayed strong and kept their Teamster plan, only moving from the TMT plan to the TBT plan. Meanwhile, they got significant wage and pension increases each year and the company increased its monthly caps to cover the health and welfare costs.
“This is an addendum to the Master Warehouse agreement that we are part of along with the ILWU. For the second time in a row, this agreement is much better than the master,” adds Helfer.
