In Brief : Heinz, Union Agree to Wage Freeze

A swap of a three-year wage freeze for a $90-million plant modernization program will help secure jobs at H.J. Heinz Co.’s Pittsburgh plant, union leaders say.

“The single most important gain we achieved in this contract is a new factory,” said Michael Kedzuf, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 325.

Without such a program, workers could have expected an “extreme and rapid reduction in the work force” as Heinz shifted products to factories with lower production costs, Kedzuf said Wednesday.

The 1,000 members are to vote on the five-year contract by mail. Ballots will be counted Jan. 6.

Once the plant is modernized, blue-collar employment is expected to drop from the current 1,000 to about 750 through normal attrition and a sweetened early retirement package but not through layoffs, Kedzuf said.

For the first three years, workers would not receive a raise. In the last two years, workers would get a 35-cent-per-hour raise and cost-of-living increases.

The average union salary is $10.97 per hour. Over five years, the contract should increase average hourly pay by about $1.47, the union said.