Kongsberg Automative, a History of Greed

By Bendygirl
crossposted on Dailykos and Uniongal

I have been watching the American Axle strike and now I’m also following the strikes at CBS (Aramark run Cafeteria) and the LOCK OUT in Van Wert, Ohio.
So, what do these things have in common? I think it’s money. Not necessarily the cost of labor or the cost of benefits. It’s about taxes, trade, environmental standards, in short, it’s about the American Way.

Over on my site today, I talked about the UNITE-HERE actions against Aramark in Canada and also at the CBS cafeteria. I also discussed the issues involved in the Kongsberg Automotive lock out in Ohio and it’s this action I want to draw your attention to now.

You see, Kongsberg has a most unsavory recent history of closing a profitable plant in order to maximize profits not only by lowering wages from one operation to the next but also through lowering the taxes they pay from one country to the next and the cost it takes to meet specific work or environmental standards. Here’s what Kongsberg had to say on their closure of Amotfors seat heating system plant.

“We are one of the world’s leading suppliers of seat heating systems for cars. To maintain this position we must adapt our production costs to a level which yield acceptable earnings also in future,” said Olav Volldal, CEO of Kongsberg Automotive.

“The potential closure is not because our employees have not performed. It is due to the significant cost gap between high cost and low cost countries,” Volldal added.

Wow, you can work for a company, do really well there and then kiss it good bye, because, well, Poland does it cheaper. That’s right, POLAND.

Kongsberg closed their Swedish Amotfors plant to move operations to Poland where the tax rate, according to the Kongsberg annual report from 2005, is 19%

The Group is reporting a tax cost percentage of 26 % in 2005. The tax cost is around 28 % for all the countries where Kongsberg Automotive operates, except for Poland where the tax rate is 19 % and the USA where the tax rate is around 33 %.

Hmm, 33% for the US, that must be why they refused to negotiate with the Kongsberg employees in Ohio. After the employees rejected the contract with steep losses in income and benefits, Kongsberg advertised for SCABS and locked out the Steel Workers! and, now they’re also threatening to just move all those operations to Mexico, hmm, what a surprise, right?

But this just seems par for the course in World Wide Corporate standards. I mean, it’s the same kind of thing that Dick Dauch is suggesting at American Axle and has been since the workers went on strike on February 26th.

The thing is that Kongsberg and American Axle don’t seem to get that their actions have consequences to the rest of the automotive industry. More specifically, American Axle not only has already shut down production at about 28 different GM factories and related industry factories nationwide, but the continued strike now will shut down Lordstown prodcution, TOMORROW. From the Mahoning County Tribune Chronicle

Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1714 of the Lordstown Metal Center plant, said management told him Thursday afternoon the estimate for running out of a brake part had been moved to Tuesday from the previous estimate of April 18.

Green said he’s scheduled to meet management at 9 a.m. today to get more details about how the situation may develop.

The Metal Center stamps and fabricates steel body parts for the small cars built at the next-door assembly plant. Some of the plant’s 1,000 hourly workers may stay on the job to make parts to bring inventory levels up to required levels, Green noted.

A UAW Local 1112 handout at that plant on Monday stated the factory was second in priority to GM’s Fairfax, Kan., plant for closure if the strike at American Axle continues. No update on the assembly outlook was available Thursday.

So, anyone taking bets on when Dick Dauch is going to take his head out of his ass and bargain in good faith?

And while we’re at it, do you think we might all take a step back from the Presidential race and actually ask these candidates on Wednesday what they’re doing today to help Aramark workers who make $400 a week in NYC after 9 years on the job, or locked out workers in Van Wert Ohio and the workers walking the picket line at American Axle? Can we have a real discussion about why we’re bitter, angry and frustrated? I’d appreciate such a conversation. Um, it’s still called Solidarity.

Some of the Dailykos Diaries I’ve written on the American Axle strike

End in Sight
Equality of Sacrifice
Help Wanted?
Clinton, McCain and Obama SILENT on Strike
Dick Dauch’s Entitlement Mentality
I Remember the Day the Shop Closed
When Strikes Happen
When Are You Going to Get Off Your Ass?
9 Million Reasons to Support Strikers
We Aren’t Disposable
Strike An American Tragedy

Aramark, NY protests, strike at 3 locations and a New Haven, CT. Rally to oust the company on 4/14/08

From the Village Voice (4/10/08) :

Dressed in red amid the blues and grays of Wall Street, union leaders pounded drums and shouted over loudspeakers yesterday to add a voice of dissent among the limos and police protection that lined Front Street in the financial district during Goldman Sachs’ annual shareholders meeting. The Service Employees International Union organized the event to ask Sachs to pressure food service provider Aramark, in which the bank holds a 20% stake. As the rally went on outside the meeting, representatives from the union addressed shareholders to demand improved labor conditions at the food services giant. Current and former employees claim that Aramark provides unfair wages and fires workers who attempt to organize for better pay and benefits.

“I was trying to organize my co-workers so that we could get the things we need” said Antonio Gomez, a former worker at Houston’s Convention Center, where Aramark provides cleaning services. Gomez said he organized partly to remedy a lack of health care coverage and was subsequently fired by the company.

“When people would get sick or injured, [Aramark] would basically say ‘That’s your problem,’ and ‘If you can’t come to work, don’t bother coming back at all’” he said.

A press representative from Aramark declined to comment on these specific allegations, citing company policy on privacy, but disputed the union’s claims more generally, saying that the company provides competitive wages and benefits. The company also said it has a 50-year relationship with unions nationwide, including SEIU.

“As a services business we rely on the quality of services provided by our employees, for that reason we make an effort to provide competitive wages” said Christine Grow, a press representative for Aramark. “A vast majority of our employees have access to health care benefits.”

The workers came to the Goldman Sachs meeting after a nationwide fact-finding tour of sites run by Aramark and say that they want to put a human face on the decisions Sachs makes as a primary stakeholder in Aramark. The union said many of these problems began when Aramark went private. Their list of concerns extends from the company shortchanging school districts in Detroit on bulk-order food to 33 major health-code violations at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA.
(continued)Read Full Story

From CNN Money (4/10/08) *Abridged

Late Wednesday afternoon, workers also went to the offices of Warburg Pincus and CCMP Capital, two of Aramark’s other private-equity buyers, where they spoke to representatives of the firms. “They were polite enough to listen to us, but they said the big bosses were in a meeting,” says Mark Williams, who works for Aramark at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

“Since the private equity deal, the company has become more arrogant,” he says. “They seem tougher in union negotiations. They want us to work more to earn health-care benefits.”

Some unionized Aramark workers in New York are also striking as part of a contract dispute, attracting attention from passersby with an eight-foot-tall inflatable skunk on 52nd Street. They work in three cafeterias, at the CBS Building in Midtown and two offices of the Bank of New York in lower Manhattan. At all three cafeterias the workers are employed by Aramark, not the tenants.

CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) and Bank of New York (BK, Fortune 500) spokespeople said their companies have no plans to get involved in the dispute. “Over the years, many CBS employees have gotten to know and appreciate the men and women employed in our cafeteria,” says CBS spokesperson Shannon Jacobs. The cafeterias have stayed open during the protests.
(continued)Read Full Story

Meanwhile in New Haven, Connecticut, there is a rally to oust Aramark from the local school district

Mobilization Alert: Rally Against Aramark April 14 in New Haven

The campaign to expel the private company Aramark from New Haven’s public schools continues with an April 14 rally in front of New Haven City Hall on 165 Church St. Join New Haven public service workers and AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee on the steps of City Hall as we renew our call to stop corrupt privatization and incompetent outsourcing.

• Click here for the April 14 Rally Flyer.
• Click here for directions to New Haven City Hall.

Parents, students, and school employees are urging members of the New Haven Board of Alderman to cut all ties with the private contractor Aramark because of the company’s mismanagement of food services and facilities maintenance.

Aramark is under fire because of the poor quality of food services and facility management in the New Haven school system. New Haven has contracted with Aramark for the last 12 years — at a cost of millions to the taxpayers.

Community members are telling elected officials to return the New Haven school system to a self-management model that would save taxpayers millions and provide better services to the kids.

News stories on Aramark in New Haven:

• Click here to read “Chicken — and Company” — Blasted in the New Haven Independent.
• Click here to read “Aramark Excoriated at Aldermen’s Public Hearing” in the New Haven Register.
• Click here to watch ”Clean Schools” on Fox 61 News.
• Click here for a press release on Council 4’s billboard campaign pointing to the waste caused by bear proof dumpsters.
• Click here to read “Union billboards slam Aramark on trash bins” in the Feb. 12 New Haven Register.
• Click here to read “Trash Talkin” in the Feb. 13 New Haven Advocate.
• Click here to read “School board to seek new food, facilities pacts as unions rally against Aramark” in the Feb. 2 New Haven Register.
• Click here to read the editorial “City should end dealings with Aramark” co-authored by Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano and New Haven Central Labor Council President Bob Proto.
• Click here to read “Custodians Want Break with Aramark” in the Jan. 14 New Haven Register.
• Click here to read “School Custodians: Fire Aramark” in the Jan. 15 New Haven Independent.
• Click here to read “School Workers Petition to Cut Ties with Aramark” in the Jan. 15 New Haven Register.

Learn more about the perils of privatization and contracting out:

• Click here for AFSCME’s Privatization Website Resources.
• Click here for the daily AFSCME Privatization Update.
• Click here to read “Schools for Sale,” which examines the privatization of non-instructional school services.
• Click here for Council 4’s “Privatization Equals Corruption” site

SEIU and UNITE-HERE have united to hist a website called Facts On Aramark

Don’t let this happen to your school district

‘NO to ARAMARK’s green eggs and ham!’

Detroit joins national protest against Aramark. / DIANE BUKOWSKI PHOTO By Diane Bukowski Special to The Michigan Citizen DETROIT — Dozens of demonstrators braved chilling winds outside the Detroit Public Schools Welcome Center Jan. 18 to kick off a national campaign aimed at dumping Aramark contracts at school districts, universities and hospitals. Members of the community, including DPS parents and state legislators, along with the unions UNITE/HERE, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Operating Engineers Local 547, Teamsters Council 43, and the Detroit Federation of Teachers, among others, called on the new school board and DPS Superintendent Connie Calloway to cut ties with Aramark.[more] You can read more at Facts On Aramark