By Michael Anderson for The Beacon
Bernie Sanders stood in solidarity with United Auto Worker union members on strike during an appearance in Crapo Park on Friday, June 17.
“You are showing this country you have the courage, you have the guts, to stand up to ugly corporate greed,” the Democratic Senator from Vermont said in his opening remarks.
Chants of “UAW” and “party on the picket line” rang out over the Mississippi River from a crowd of about 250 people outside the band shell as they waited to hear Sanders speak. Many carried signs and wore red T-shirts emblazoned with UAW Local 807 and the image of a fist raised in solidarity on their backs.
Before Sanders’ arrival, UAW Local 807 President Nick Guernsey was joined on stage by workers from John Deere who had traveled from Des Moines to stand in solidarity with their union brothers and sisters.
“These bastards are suffering from an addiction called greed,” Sanders said. “Nobody here minds if somebody makes money, not a big deal. But the truth of the matter is: how much damn money do you need?”
During his speech, he highlighted how the immense wealth gap in the United States has been widened further in recent years by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“What this struggle is about is a decent contract, but ultimately it is about human decency,” Sanders said.
The senator from Vermont went on to call out the Agnelli family, which owns CNH along with the Fiat motor company in Italy, underscoring how Case reported a $1.76 billion profit, a 21 percent improvement over its pre-pandemic performance in 2019.
“If CNH can afford to spend over $100 million on stock buybacks over six months to enrich their wealthy shareholders,” Sanders said, “it can afford to treat all of its employees with the dignity and the respect that they deserve.”
Sanders also criticized CNH for hiring replacement workers before the UAW strike fully kicked off.
“I know here in Iowa you have another word for that called ‘scabs’,” Sanders said, drawing cheers and laughter from the crowd.
Sanders’ appearance came during the sixth week that workers from the local Case New Holland plant have been on strike. Their demands: higher pay, a path to retirement, and better vacation policies.
The third round of negotiations fell through this past Tuesday, June 14, but the workers are undeterred, according to Guernsey.
“This is not the time to make a concessionary agreement,” the president of UAW Local 807 said. “We’re in a unique time here in the United States. Labor is on the rise.”
Before they went on strike at noon on May 1, the union workers at CNH were routinely forced to work 10 to 12-hour days. Many got used to working through their 10-minute breaks in the hopes of shaving some time off of their shifts so they could get home to see their families.
Brandon Kanouse, 31, is the father of two little boys, a five-year-old and a three-year-old who he barely had time to see while he was still at work as the factory’s sole forklift operator.
“The most I’ve ever seen them has been during this strike,” Kanouse said from the picket line on Friday.
Kanouse was joined for his strike shift by Todd Ackermann. The two union men stood in the punishing heat outside the gate of their workplace in the hours before Sanders’ speech, waving their UAW signs over their heads whenever a passing driver honked their horn in support. The community support has been incredible, they said. Donations of food, water, and other essentials roll in every day, and solidarity between workers has remained strong.
“You mess with one person in the union, you mess with us all,” Kanouse said.
According to Guernsey, the UAW has agreed to cover major medical costs and pay every striking CNH employee $400 a week — a recent increase from $275 — in exchange for four hours on the picket line each week.
For many, it’s barely enough to get by.
“I can hardly afford the gas to get out here,” said Ackerman, 57, who lives 15 miles away in Biggsville, IL.
Record-breaking inflation has only made things harder.
But even when they were still showing up to work, the wages weren’t enough.
Currently, the average starting wages of unionized CNH workers in Burlington is $19.26 per hour, which is $5.50 lower than those of the company’s non-unionized workers in other locations, according to Guernsey.
Ackermann has worked at CNH for 10 years installing stabilizer legs on backhoes.
It’s hard work, he said, and it’s only gotten harder. When he started the job, he was on a team of two people tasked with producing 18 units a day. Now it’s just him and his quota has gone up to 26 units per day.
He and Kanouse agreed that things started to get worse at the plant when Fiat purchased CNH in 2013.
“It used to be I couldn’t wait to come into work,” Ackerman said. “It was fun, it was challenging. People cared about you, even your supervisors. Now I’m ashamed to admit I work here.”
Having Sen. Sanders show up to support them and the union meant a lot, Ackermann and Kanouse agreed.
“I am a diehard Republican and I will be there (at Sanders’ speech),” Ackermann said. “That’s how much this means to me…I don’t care what he is. His political views might be different from mine but that doesn’t matter right now.”
After the event, Sanders praised the men and women of the UAW in Burlington when asked why he thought it was important to show up in person.
“These people have taken on an enormously powerful and wealthy corporation that’s taken away their healthcare and is offering them an insulting contract,” Sanders said.
“I respect people that have the courage to stand up and fight for their families, and for decency, and that’s why I’m here.”’
In his closing remarks, the senator called on CNH to return to the negotiating table “and offer your employees a contract that is fair and is just.”