Faucet Factory’s Workers Protest
Price Pfister Inc. workers converged on a park here Sunday to fight their company’s plans to lay off hundreds of employees as it shifts jobs to Mexico and contemplates moving the rest of its operation to another state.
Price Pfister--the nation’s third-biggest maker of faucets--is closing part of its manufacturing operation and laying off about 500 workers from its Pacoima factory, some of whom have already been idled. Jobs are being shifted to Mexico to help pay the cost of complying with state regulations that require the company to reduce the lead content of its faucets.
But another 900 manufacturing, administrative and marketing jobs may be in jeopardy because the firm is considering moving its remaining operations to a state with lower taxes and less-stringent environmental regulations, the company has said.
As a result, about 500 mostly Latino workers and their family members gathered Sunday at the Ritchie Valens Recreation Center to organize opposition to the company’s plans, including a demonstration in front of the plant Thursday.
“We’re hoping for everybody’s support because there’s a lot of us who are going to be out of a job soon,” said Luis Hernandez, a material controller who has put in eight years at the Pacoima factory.
To comply with a state lawsuit to reduce faucets’ lead content, Price Pfister has had to invest in new manufacturing equipment. To cut operating costs, it is turning to cheaper labor in Mexico, where the company’s 9-year-old factory now employs 800 workers in assembly-line polishing and inspection jobs.
But critics of the company’s plans charge that it is motivated by greed. Citing the fact that other faucet makers have cut the lead in their products without exporting a large number of jobs, they say the company is merely trying to maximize profits by shifting jobs to low-wage workers over the border.
“They keep telling us at the plant that the work is slow, but we know that’s not true. We know that it is being shipped down to Mexico,” Hernandez said. “I know because I was sent to Mexicali two weeks ago to help train workers there.”
The recent events have triggered a rebellion by workers against the leadership of their union chapter, Teamsters Local 986. On Sunday, workers circulated a petition formally requesting the international union to intervene and help them save their jobs, citing the failure of their local union.
Late last week, workers fired off a letter to local union leaders demanding that a workers committee be allowed to join the bargaining process, said Scott Askey, an international Teamsters organizer who said he has been working with Price Pfister employees since the beginning of October at their request.
“The workers want to be involved in the negotiation process,” Askey said. “The local union has not communicated with the workers about the layoffs, the closure of the plant or about the destruction of their lives.”
Officials from Price Pfister could not be reached Sunday, nor could representatives of the Teamsters local. But two weeks ago, a local union official said in an interview that the workers are frustrated and are taking it out on the union leadership.
“They feel betrayed,” said the official, Manny Barbosa. “They blame the union, too. What can we do? I can’t go stand at the border when literally hundreds of companies are moving down there.”
If the layoffs are inevitable, Askey said, the workers are hoping to negotiate a severance package that includes extended medical benefits. “We don’t want the company moving out, but if it does we want to be compensated,” said Eddie Vidavrre, a Price Pfister employee.
Meanwhile, city officials are hoping it is not too late to head off the threatened move and have offered loans, tax incentives and a possible break on utility rates to keep the company in Pacoima. The controversy also has grabbed the attention of state and federal officials, including U.S. Rep. Howard Berman and Assemblyman Richard Katz, both of whom sent representatives to Sunday’s meeting.
“The closing of Price Pfister does not only devastate the lives of the workers, but it also will have a tremendous impact on the community in the San Fernando Valley that is supported by the workers’ wages,” Askey said.
About 90% of Price Pfister’s union workers are Latino, many of whom have limited English skills, and their chances of finding other jobs with comparable pay and benefits are slim, union officials say. One official said workers average about $17 per hour in salary and benefits.
