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Union, Behr reach tentative agreement

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By Ben Sutherly and John Nolan
Staff Writer Updated 12:16 PM Friday, November 20, 2009

MORAINE — The union representing hourly workers at Behr Dayton Thermal and the company signed a tentative, cost-cutting agreement Thursday night, Nov. 19, setting up a make-or-break union ratification vote on Tuesday, Nov. 24. IUE-CWA and company officials said that vote will determine whether the plant stays open or closes.

Both sides acknowledged at a news conference Friday that the negotiations, started on Aug. 24, have been tense because of the stakes, and because of union members’ concerns about cost-sharing they have been asked to accept in health care benefits.

At stake are 900 hourly and salaried jobs at the Behr Dayton plant, 1600 Webster St, which is the city’s last remaining full-time auto products plant after closure of Delphi Corp. facilities in recent years. The International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America, which represents the Behr workers, also represented hourly employees at General Motors Corp.’s Moraine sport utility vehicle assembly plant, which GM closed in December 2008.

The proposed agreement will save the Behr Dayton plant $12 million in costs a year starting in 2011, and will allow the plant to compete for additional work, company and IUE-CWA officials told reporters Friday.

But, if the contract proposal is rejected, the company would close the plant and move the work elsewhere, both sides said.

Behr opened its books to the union, which hired its own examiners for the analysis, said Jim Clark, president of the IUE-CWA. It showed that product volumes and price volumes had dropped, increasing pressure on Behr to reduce the plant’s operating costs, Clark said.

“No one liked the things we had to do, to solidify this plant,” Clark said. But, he added, “The world has changed, in the automotive industry.”

“It’s tough, but that’s the way it is,” said Wilm Uhlenbecker, Behr’s vice president of operations for the company’s plants in the United States and Mexico.

Reducing the labor costs is the remaining obstacle, because the plant’s manufacturing operations have been made more efficient, Uhlenbecker said.

Both sides declined to share details of the proposed contract. Members of IUE-CWA Local 775 will get the details on Sunday and Monday, union officials said. Additionally, Local 775 will provide three information meetings Tuesday at its union hall, 150 Heid Ave., in north Dayton.

Voting on the contract will be held from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Union officials said they should know the results of the vote by 7 p.m.

Clark said the proposed contract provides language signaling the company’s intent to keep the plant open through November 2013.

Officials have said the plant’s hourly workers likely will be asked to give up more than $10 million in annual benefits, primarily in health care.

Workers have a health plan through which they pay no deductibles, according to Heinz Otto, Behr’s president and chief executive officer. The benefit costs Behr $15,000 annually per employee, compared with $7,500 at other Behr locations, management said.

Behr officials have said workers with the most seniority must accept pay cuts. Some lower-paid employees would receive a modest pay raise.

Local 775 members on Oct. 22 rejected a three-year contract proposal, 787-43. Union officials believe the new agreement includes across-the-board improvements from the rejected deal, Clark said.

Workers make heating and air conditioning parts at the plant, which Behr bought from Chrysler in 2002.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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