First RWDSU Contract for Cole's Workers (11/4/09)

Cole's workers celebrate their first union contract.

When workers at Cole’s Quality Foods in North Liberty, Iowa, joined RWDSU Local 110 in February, they did so because they wanted a voice on the job to stop communication problems, favoritism, and put an end to what one worker called “broken promises.” Now, the 44 production, sanitation, and maintenance workers at the facility, which produces frozen breadsticks, are already enjoying the benefits of their first union contract.

The three-year contract was ratified on October 31 by a an overwhelming margin and includes average wage increases of approximately 60 cents per hour for the first year, and 15 cents per hour for each of the remaining two years of the contract. The workers also won vacation time, sick pay of 40 hours annually, frozen medical and dental premiums for the first 18 months of the agreement, the Friday after Thanksgiving as an additional holiday, and instituted a plant-wide seniority system for job bidding, vacations, overtime work, and layoffs and recalls.