Gamesa Technology Corporation and the United Steelworkers (USW) on June 7 announced that a four-year Collective Bargaining Agreement for Gamesa’s Pennsylvania-based manufacturing and warehouse locations was voted on and approved by the workforce on Friday, June 4. The new agreement succeeds the initial Gamesa-USW agreement reached in 2007, and goes into effect immediately.
In addition to wage increases and benefit enhancements, the agreement also includes a new gain-sharing incentive system, with monthly payouts based on achieving quality, productivity and production targets.
The success of this agreement highlights the “doing well by doing good” Gamesa approach to create both good and green jobs in the U.S. wind industry. Throughout recent “Great Recession” difficult times, USW and Gamesa leadership teams worked in partnership with Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor & Industry to put the company’s workforce first by maintaining stability, minimizing the amount and duration of temporary layoffs, and softening the impact on affected workers as much as possible. Gamesa is now adding jobs in Pennsylvania.
In June 2008, American Rights at Work, one of the nation’s leading labor policy and advocacy organizations, honored Gamesa with the fourth annual “Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 2008” for setting the example of how private industry can harness the vast potential of renewable energy to create a stronger and more sustainable economy that benefits workers and their families.
Good Jobs First, in a February 2009 report, “High Road or Low Road? Job Quality in the New Green Economy,” profiled Gamesa as a green labor partner and noted that “the company is widely regarded as a model employer for the emerging U.S. green economy.”
