Miller Brewing Company office staff vote to strike Office workers at Miller Brewing Company's headquarters voted last Thursday to strike for the first time in 20 years. One hundred fifty of the two hundred employees voted in favor of the action, which is to be scheduled by bargaining negotiators. The workers include accounting clerks, payroll specialists and schedulers. The latest contract extension is due to expire April 29. The issues of health care and wage increases for merit lie at the center of the dispute.
Workers are opposed to a clause that provides wage increases on a merit basis.
This would allow only three or four employees to earn top-performer status. If ratified it would bring to an end one of the longest strikes in Canadian history. One hundred eighty-seven members of USWA Local 950 went on strike at the gold mine in northwestern Ontario in June of 1996, but the company refused to bargain, using the money saved on wages to invest in new exploration. There are now only about 100 workers left, the rest having gone to other jobs, and only 45 of those are expected to be rehired if the contract is accepted. The offer must be accepted by April 20 or the company says it will contract out the work as it has done in the past.