By Ron Leuty, Reporter - San Francisco Business Times
Union production and maintenance workers at Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals in Berkeley will receive pay raises, a freeze on the percentage of their out-of-pocket health insurance premiums and a measure of job security as part of a proposed four-year contract.
Bayer and leaders of International Longshore and Warehouse Union .International Longshore and Warehouse Union Latest from The Business Journals Grain terminal operator answers labor dispute questionsSlide show: Milt Priggee’s September cartoonsClose to 500 rally in Longview to support longshore union Follow this company .Local 6, which covers 430 Bayer employees, reached the tentative deal Friday night, said union secretary-treasurer Fred Pecker. After informational meetings, the rank-and-file will vote on the contract Oct. 12.
The previous contract expired Aug. 24 but had rolled over for the Bay Area’s only unionized biotech workforce.
The Berkeley facility produces the blood-clotting drug Kogenate for hemophilia patients.
The proposed contract includes 3.1 percent pay increases for each of the first three years and 3.2 percent on the fourth year, Pecker said. Union members today make about $26 to $28 an hour, he said.
Out-of-pocket health and welfare premiums were frozen at 18 percent over the life of the contract, so if health insurance costs continue to increase the actual amount also will rise, Pecker said. Bayer, according to the Berkeleyside blog, had wanted employee contributions to rise to 20 percent.
What’s more, the company agreed to provide prior warning when it relocates jobs out of the Berkeley facility. Although the two sides didn’t settle on a specific length of time that Bayer would have to give the union notice, it is an important job security issue, Pecker said. Bayer earlier this year said it would shed 540 jobs in Emeryville over the next two years as it shifts production of its multiple sclerosis drug Betaseron to a European contract manufacturer.
Just 1-1/2 years ago, Pecker said, Bayer was considering moving part of Kogenate production to a contractor in New Hampshire and shipping finished product to Berkeley for packaging.
Union members in late August rejected Bayer management’s offer, reportedly due to the health insurance premium increase. Last month, members overwhelmingly authorized union leadership to end the contract — instead of rolling it over — which would be one step closer to a strike authorization vote.
“Going into Friday, the biggest issue was prior notice,” Pecker said. “If things had not gone well on Friday, it would have been an ugly situation.”
