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Cenveo workers disgruntled with union over contract re-vote

By Eric Morris emorris@heraldstandard.Com 2 min read

An employee at a Cenveo Inc. envelope plant in Tarrs said he and his coworkers will vote today for the third time on a proposed contract negotiated by their labor union after twice voting down the same deal.

Dontay Stokes of Connellsville, who works as an operator at the plant, said about 330 Cenveo employees represented by United Steelworkers District 10 voted as recently as Saturday to reject the contract.

Stokes contends that the union is not properly representing its members and is attempting to strong-arm the workers into accepting the three-year deal.

“They said, ‘take this contract and we’ll get you a better one three years down the road,'” Stokes said. “Does that make you feel good about your union? We’re not asking for them to make us rich. We just want it to be fair.”

United Steelworkers District 10 director Bobby “Mac” McAuliffe could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

When reached via phone, District 10 staff representative Linda Breeden said she could not comment on the situation.

Stokes said when he began working at the plant in 2010 — then owned by National Envelope Corp. and located in Upper Tyrone Township — he made $12.82 an hour. When Cenveo purchased the operation in 2013 and moved it to its current location in RIDC Westmoreland, the site of former Volkswagen and Sony assembly plants, his wage was reduced by 5 percent to $12.18, he said.

While the proposed contract would restore the 5 percent reduction in the first year and provide marginal increases over the next two years, Stokes said, it doesn’t make up for accruing costs during that time period.

“Granted, they are giving that 5 percent back. But in the past five years, that doesn’t account for the cost of living going up, insurance going up,” Stokes said.

Stokes expressed grievances over the company reducing employee benefits and switching to an insurance company that demands higher deductibles, as well as changes made to overtime wage rules and disability deductions that he said are unfair to the workers.

Stokes said that according to McAuliffe, a vote is occurring today at the plant because a large number of employees were not able to participate in the previous vote Saturday.

Cenveo, an international leader in print products, is based in Stamford, Connecticut, and operates four envelope plants in Pennsylvania.

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