As CUNA Mutual Union Strike Continues, Both Sides Expected to Meet This Week
But they seem to be at odds as to how many times they should continue holding bargaining sessions.
On day two of the CUNA Mutual Group/TruStage union employees’ strike, both sides said negotiations are expected to resume this week.
“We continue to meet and exchange proposals with the Union, including meeting this week. We are determined to reach a fair and market-competitive agreement that meets the needs of our employees, our customers and our company,” CMG/TruStage said in a prepared statement Monday.
The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 39, which represents more than 450 CMG/TruStage employees, said it put forward 10 days for bargaining with or without a federal mediator.
“The employer is only willing to meet one day this week, although they have yet to officially confirm the date to the Union,” OPEIU President Kathryn Bartlett-Mulvihill said. “I will say that the Union did send counter proposals to the employer, which we believe meets ours and the employer’s needs. We have yet to hear back from them.”
The union began its strike after both sides could not agree to a new labor contract on Friday. Hundreds of union employees picketed outside CUNA Mutual/TruStage’s offices in Madison, Wis., holding signs and chanting as supporters honked their horns as they drove by.
Both sides remain at odds over wages, retirement, health care, remote work and job security.
CMG/TruStage said its proposal over wages includes a double-digit immediate pay increase, an increase to bonus structure and a cash bonus upon ratification.
However, OPEIU countered that its members have been operating under an expired contract for 14 months and have not received a pay increase in more than two years. In addition, CMG/TruStage’s proposal offers no retroactive pay for the 13 months. Adjusting for inflation, the company’s proposal is more than a 4% pay cut, according to the union.
Although CMG/TruStage said it agreed to maintain retirement benefits for current employees and will continue to offer a 401(k)-employer match of up to 5%, the union countered the company is still proposing to eliminate the pension plan for all new hires and to cut employer contributions in half for new employees.
CMG/TruStage said it would maintain the current health benefits and add a health savings account option.
When it comes to health care, remote workers hired by CMG/TruStage are only provided an unaffordable consumer-directed high deductible plan, the union said.
Another big sore point with the union is that CMG/TruStage has refused to offer any significant protections regarding job security, arguing that the company has outsourced and contracted out more than 1,200 good-paying union jobs in the last 20 years.
“They have been slowly attempting to bust our union for decades,” the union said.
CMG/TruStage, however, said it doesn’t agree with OPEIU’s characterization of its staffing practices.
“As our environment and work change, the natural evolution of how we do our work impacts staffing levels in different parts of our company, both union-represented and non-union-represented, so that we can best serve our customers,” CMG/TruStage said. “As those changes have occurred, we’ve followed the terms of our collective bargaining agreement. In 2022 and through Q1 of this year, we’ve seen an increase, not a decrease of represented employees of the company as we have continued to hire.”
Editor’s Note: We referred to CUNA Mutual Group as CMG/TruStage in this story because the organization is in the process of changing its name to TruStage. We are awaiting final confirmation that the name has changed.