Though the union representing 450 CUNA Mutual workers voted April 19 to authorize a strike, the union says its "aim is to reach an agreement before having to strike."
CUNA Mutual Group and its 450 union workers have agreed to a mediation process to resolve contentious contract negotiations after workers voted to authorize a strike by an overwhelming margin. A neutral third party will now help the two sides come to an agreement.
“The union’s aim is to reach an agreement before having to strike,” says OPEIU Local 39 spokesperson Andrew Sernatinger. According to Sernatinger, CUNA Mutual requested mediation April 13, the day after the union announced it would hold a strike vote, which it did a week later on April 19. That vote, which saw 92% of members authorize a strike, allows the union to begin a work stoppage at any time if mediation is unsuccessful.
According to Sernatinger, the union has met independently with the mediator but no date has been set for a first meeting with all parties.
CUNA Mutual spokesperson Barclay Pollak confirmed that CUNA Mutual “continues to be interested in mediation with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and we have communicated that to union leaders.”
Pollak also said that CUNA Mutual has “offered options that include virtual meetings and paid-time for bargaining.”
The union has said that progress on negotiations stalled when management started requiring in-person negotiations.
Pollak did not clarify whether CUNA Mutual management has met with a mediator yet.
CUNA Mutual is an insurance and investment firm that provides services to credit unions and their members and is one of Madison’s largest private-sector employers. Including non-union contractors, the company employs about 2,000 workers in the Madison area.
Isthmus previously reported that negotiations had stalled out early in the year. Workers and management last met on Jan. 12. Workers have accused the company of delay tactics, retaliation, and negotiating in bad faith.
“We started bargaining last February,” the union’s president, Kathryn Bartlett-Mulvihill, said at the April 24 news conference. She said that more than a year later, differences regarding wages, benefits, the company’s use of non-union contractors, and its diversity practices remain unresolved.
Tensions have increased since talks broke down. CUNA Mutual hired the second-largest pro-management law firm in the country to investigate the union’s chief steward, Joe Evica, who was ultimately fired. The company says Evica was fired for violating workplace rules on data privacy and information handling. But the union believes he was fired because of his role as a union leader, calling it "targeted retaliation."
In February and March, the union filed unfair labor practice charges against the company at the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that enforces labor law. Those charges accuse the company of negotiating in bad faith and retaliating against workers for union activity, both of which are prohibited by federal labor law.
At the press conference, Bartlett-Mulvihill said that the company’s investigation of Evica began the same day the union sent a letter to thousands of CUNA Mutual’s credit union customers warning about potential disruptions to services the labor dispute could cause.
Bartlett-Mulvihill and other union officials spoke in front of a backdrop reading "TruStage can't be TruSted." CUNA Mutual is planning a company-wide rebrand as TruStage this spring, and speakers referred to the company by both names in their remarks.
“CUNA Mutual has money,” said Evica. “But we have the power of 450 union members who are ready to shut TruStage down if they refuse to negotiate a fair contract.”
