Quad City workers fight for owed benefits

Workers in Moline, Ill., filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) July 7 against their employer Quad City Die Casting because the company says Wells Fargo is not approving expenditures to pay for the workers owed benefits.

The company informed the workers, members with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1174, that the bank has refused to approve the money owed to the workers, including vacation pay and a two percent wage increase due to them under their legally binding collective bargaining agreement. Wells Fargo, says the company, has also refused to pay for a floating holiday and has eliminated the workers health insurance coverage. According to management, the bank approves all expenditures by the company on a weekly basis.

For the last several months, the Quad City workers and their union have been demanding that Wells Fargo save 100 jobs at the Moline, Ill. factory and continue to extend credit to the company, which is slated to close July 12.

Quad City Die Casting is a 60-year-old family-owned business that manufactures precision metal parts. Wells Fargo, a $25 billion recipient of federal bailout money, refuses to extend credit to the company and prefers to liquidate the business.

“Wells Fargo first ends financing, forcing our company to close, and now they won’t pay us what we are owed by law,” said Deb Johann in a recent statement. Johann has worked at Quad City for the last 31 years.

“To us, our vacation, insurance and wages mean everything to our families,” Johann added. “But to Wells Fargo its pennies, not even a blip in their billions. Yet they choose to cheat us out of what we have earned. And to think we helped them out when they needed it.’

UE organizer Leah Fried said that Wells Fargo should not be a roadblock to economic recovery and should invest in good American jobs and keep the factory open.

The charges filed with the NLRB on behalf of the workers will be investigated and as a result a determination will be made pending the outcome.

Meanwhile, the workers and their union continue to pressure Wells Fargo to do what is necessary to keep the company open until a sale of the business is finalized. According to UE, there are several interested parties looking to make a bid to purchase the Moline, Ill. factory. Over 100 people stand to lose their jobs if the factory is shut down. The economic impact on the community would be $6.1 million annually in lost wages and tax revenue, says the union.

UE drew national attention last year when hundreds of workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago after Bank of America cut credit to the business. The workers eventually won a settlement with the bank, and the factory was sold to a new buyer that has since reopened the plant and plans to rehire all former Republic workers.