Union votes on GP’s ‘last, best offer’ today

Posted on June 28, 2017

Some 326 members of United Steel Workers (USW) Local 1192 will vote today (Wednesday) to accept or reject Georgia- Pacific’s “last, best and final” contract offer, one that–according to union members–would take $5-6 million out of the local community.

“Negotiations are over. It is now left up to the members,” Local 1192 President Howard Pickels said. “The media has put the blame on us, but we are the ones working for our members, who are your baseball coaches, your soccer coaches. We make monthly contributions to non-profit groups in the county and we don’t seek publicity for it. We are the ones who live here, not GP managers. Very few of the managers live in Taylor County. How many are involved with the local programs like our members are?” Pickels said. “If we accept the contract, that’s $5-6 million dollars being taken out of the community as best we can figure. And that will be per year.”

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