YAKIMA, Wash. -- Two dozen union workers at S.S. Steiner went on strike at noon Tuesday over the hop supplier’s proposals, which they say will dilute essential worker rights.
One point of contention is contract language that would remove the power of the arbitration process, the final step in a union worker grievance process, said Leonard Crouch, administrative officer for Teamsters Local Union No. 760, which represents the workers.
The workers have been negotiating a new contract since the previous one expired nearly a year ago, Crouch said. They at S.S. Steiner’s pellet and warehousing departments.
S.S. Steiner did not return several phone calls seeking comment, but in a memo to employees posted after Teamsters 760 gave its strike notice last week, officials stated they were “disappointed.”
“We believed that the parties had been making progress,” Dave Dunham, general manager of hop processing wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the Yakima Herald-Republic from an employee. He noted that the company has not met with the union since July 27.
