Despite pressures from unfair trade and market changes, members continue to leverage the power of solidarity to negotiate good contracts.
More than 20,000 USW members produce a wide range of glass products, including glass containers, fiberglass, specialty glass, auto and architectural flat glass, consumer glass and lighting glass.
Despite pressures from unfair trade and market changes, members continue to leverage the power of solidarity to negotiate good contracts.
“Members of 13 USW units who work at six Anchor Glass facilities voted in April 2023 to ratify three-year agreements.”
Anchor Glass
Members of 13 USW units who work at six Anchor Glass facilities voted in April 2023 to ratify three-year agreements.
The three master agreements cover more than 1,300 workers in three departments—production and maintenance, mold making and automated machine—at factories in Jacksonville, Fla.; Warner Robins, Ga.; Lawrenceburg, Ind.; Shakopee, Minn.; Elmira, N.Y.; and Henryetta, Okla.
The agreements included across-the-board wage increases of 4 percent per year, plus hourly skills adjustments, additional pension contributions, and upgrades to sickness and accident benefits.
In addition, members now have the option of taking Juneteenth, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Veterans Day as unpaid days off.
The contract maintained the heath care plan with no increase in premiums.
Corning
About 3,750 members who work at Corning Inc. facilities across five states demonstrated the power of company- wide collaboration in 2022 as a number of locals—separated by geography but united by solidarity—negotiated new contracts with strong wage and benefit packages.
Members won strong agreements at all of the USW’s Corning locals, including three in New York, one in Virginia, one in North Carolina, one in Kentucky, and one in New Jersey.
Historically, all of the USW’s agreements with Corning closely followed what the union negotiated on behalf of the 1,900 members of Local 1000 in Corning, N.Y., the site of the company’s headquarters and flagship factory.
Local 1000 ratified a four-year contract with wage increases totaling 15 percent, including 6 percent in the first year, along with paid sick leave, pension increases, and the continuation of the quality, affordable health care plan with no premium increases for two years.
Following that success, Local 1000 leaders bargained alongside their USW siblings in Caton and Oneonta, N.Y., and traveled to Wilmington, N.C., to assist Local 1025 members with their bargaining, which ultimately contributed to strong agreements across the company that mirrored the success at Local 1000.
Gallo Glass
Members ratified three-year contracts in 2022 covering about 600 workers at Locals 17M and 18 at Gallo Glass in Modesto, Calif.
Those agreements included significant annual wage increases, bonuses and pension improvements, without increasing health care costs for workers.
NSG Pilkington
About 600 members at NSG Pilkington in Ottawa, Ill., Rossford, Ohio, and Laurinburg, N.C., negotiated new contracts in 2023 and 2024. The contracts all included record wage increases, pattern-bargained health care with no changes in plan design for 2024 or 2025, and improvements to 401(k) contributions for the first time in more than 20 years.
Owens Corning
Members at Owens Corning plants in Delmar, N.Y. (Local 77M); Fairburn, Ga. (Local 236M); Newark, Ohio (Local 244M); Starr, S.C. (Local 15M); and Waxahachie, Texas (Local 201M) came together in December 2023 for master benefit negotiations with the company that cover 1,300 workers.
In addition to improvements to 401(k) matching contributions and disability benefits, the six-year agreement included a health care plan in the master agreement for the first time. The new health care plan will reduce costs for most USW members at the plants.
O-I Glass
USW members at O-I Glass facilities ratified new three-year agreements in 2022 covering about 2,800 workers at more than a dozen factories across the United States.
After the company initially came to the bargaining table seeking concessions, members fought back and instead achieved significant gains.
The agreement covers workers in the hot end (automatic machine department) and the cold end (production and maintenance departments).
The O-I master agreement covers members of Local 137M in Los Angeles; Local 177M in Tracy, Calif.; Locals 140M and 3M in Streator, Ill.; Local 207M in Lapel, Ind.; Local 168M in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Locals 105M, 172M and 178M in Zanesville, Ohio; Local 195M in Muskogee, Okla.; Local 112M in Portland, Ore.; Locals 28M and 110M in Brockway and Crenshaw, Pa.; Locals 259M and 220M in Waco, Texas; Local 89M in Danville, Va.; and Local 33M in Toano, Va.
The new agreement featured 4 percent wage increases each year, increases to retirement benefits, and continuation of the existing quality health care coverage. The contracts also included upgrades to sick and accident pay and dental benefits.
