Caterpillar Describes Terms of UAW Dispute

Harry Bernstein’s column, “Workers at Caterpillar Lost a Battle, but the War Goes On” (April 28), overlooks, or distorts facts surrounding the disagreement between Caterpillar and the United Auto Workers union.

Caterpillar attempted for more than five months to reach agreement with the UAW leadership. Three contracts were proposed--each better than the last. All three were rejected out of hand by the UAW leadership.

It is untrue that the UAW membership has ever voted on any of these offers. The union never gave their members the opportunity to accept the offers.

On several occasions during the dispute, Caterpillar proposed using federal mediation to the UAW leadership, only to have the offer rejected by the union.

The terms of Caterpillar’s third and final offer were excellent: a 13% pay raise, to an average $19 per hour; full health care; improved pensions for retirees; and a moratorium on plant closing for at lease six years.

In March, Caterpillar was forced to conclude that negotiations were at an impasse.

In early April we invited striking workers back to work under the terms of our final offer, and made provisions for hiring replacement workers only for those strikers who chose not to return.

We are fortunate now to have our employees back on the job, working under the terms of our third and final offer. We hope the talks under the auspices of federal mediators will bring about a settlement within the framework of our final offer--an offer that is fair to our employees and makes sense for our long-term competitiveness.

G. S. FLAHERTY

Peoria, Ill.

The writer is group president at Caterpillar Inc.