Membership of Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 39 walked off their jobs at TruStage (formerly CUNA Mutual Group) on Madison’s west side Friday in protest of the company’s refusal to bargain in good faith.þþThe workers demonstrated that they possess the unity to pull off a historic and long-building strike against one of Madison’s largest employers. Leadership for the union says that the work stoppage, which will last for one week, could resume in the future and continue for a longer duration if TruStage does not begin to compromise during contract negotiations.þþAt issue: workers with the union are asking for increases in pay, better benefits, and a say over how union workers who retire or quit are replaced. The company has made a habit of using outside staffing agencies to provide remote workers who take up the job responsibilities of a unionized Madisonian.þþ“[TruStage] remains fully committed to reaching a Collective Bargaining Agreement with OPEIU Local 39,” Barclay Pollak, a company spokesperson, said in a statement. “From the start, CUNA Mutual Group has approached negotiations with the OPEIU Local 39 in good faith and continues to do so.”þþWhile the statement went on to note how the company had made an offer to the union that included changes to wages, and maintenance of various other benefits, it failed to mention that the company continues to refuse to compromise on the issue of outsourcing jobs.þþTruStage has shrunk its local footprint, downscaling from approximately 1,700 workers at its Madison headquarters in 2011, to 1,400 today. The reduction in a local workforce, aided by a work-from-home transition that allows staff to live anywhere in the world, parallels a collapse in OPEIU Local 39 membership. At its peak, the union boasted over 1,600 members. Today that number has dwindled to approximately 450.þþYet those few hundred represent over 10 percent of TruStage’s total workforce and nearly a third of its Madison-based staff. Union leaders hope their smaller, but no less mighty, bunch can halt the company’s operations enough to get the multi-billion dollar corporation to compromise.þþThe view from the picket lineþHundreds of workers marched the sidewalk in front of the TruStage headquarters on Friday, shouting chants and carrying signs, all of the classic trappings of a strike. Another 50 workers joined the picket virtually over Zoom, participating from Kentucky, Nevada, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Washington, and Florida.þþTheir actions drew quick results: construction workers preparing to demolish a building on the TruStage campus walked off the job in solidarity with the strikers.þþ“I think the company has always been extremely sensitive to their public image,” says Sarah Larsen, a member of the union’s bargaining team. “We’re hoping that not only the public pressure on their public image brings them back to the bargaining table, but internal pressure from the loss of their expert workforce will cause pressures on the systems we keep running everyday.”þþLarsen went on to say that she has heard some middle management within the company are “dismayed and worried” at the prospect of having to keep the business running with only the help of some contractors.þþThe picket line extended a third of a mile, from the intersection of Mineral Point and Rosa Roads west to a driveway onto the TruStage campus near a strip mall, requiring anyone who wanted to access the corporate offices from Mineral Point Road to cross the picket.þþThe demonstration was hard to miss as the workers, many of whom wore matching blue T-shirts, flooded the sidewalks and carried or wore signs.þþ“Corporate Mother F***ing Greed,” read one sign, offering an alternative acronym for CUNA Mutual Financial Group, TruStage’s previous name.þþAt least one dog joined the humans on the picket line, a very good girl named Chevelle who carried her own sign. It read, “Throw your workers a bone!”þþThe demonstrators erected an inflatable fat cat wearing a suit, smoking a cigar, clutching a bag of money in one hand, and choking a worker in the other. That dramatic imagery paired well with the 1,200 flags stuck in the ground in the Mineral Point Road median to catch the eye of passing motorists. Each of the flags represent one union job lost over the last several decades to effects like outsourcing.þþPrivate security guards stood watch outside of the company’s main driveway, but did not confront the picketers, who had drawn a literal line on the ground to ensure their participants did not unwittingly stray onto TruStage property.
Source: tonemadison.com
