Manufacturing Worker Correspondent
We are the workers of Shuttlewagon, a Wabtec-owned company in Kansas City. We build railcar movers for the railroad industry in the nation’s second-largest rail hub.
For years, this company ran on favoritism and fear. Our handbooks are full of gray areas. Our acceptance letters list our jobs, then add “manager/supervisor discretion”—words that allow them to decide raises, attendance points, promotions, time off, and job assignments at their “discretion”. Raises depended on who you knew, not how hard you worked. Promotions worked the same way, while we were expected to do ten jobs for one price.
Raises were supposed to come in February. Sometimes they didn’t arrive until April because selling wagons mattered more. Evaluations could be done by someone who had worked with us only a month or two. Company banners show parts sold. Meetings announce profit. But bonuses go to people already making $100,000 to $200,000. We were told Wabtec didn’t believe in bonuses—yet we get an attendance bonus and management gets up to $50,000.
We’ve had three handbooks in three years. New rules were retroactively enforced on some workers, especially attendance, without our knowledge. The middle handbook eliminated points; the latest brought them back. We don’t even know how many points we have because no one but management knows how many points you have and supervisors have “discretion” whether to give them or not. This has gotten to become so ridiculous that on Labor Day, the company sent everyone home early so that we could celebrate the holiday with our families—then gave us all attendance points.
So we had enough. We contacted the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) to help us form a union at Shuttlewagon. In the course of the campaign we managed to get close to 80% of the workers to sign union cards and asked the company for voluntary recognition. They ignored us. Instead, they flew in lawyers, paid for their food, hotels, and airfare, and bought and gave out anti-union shirts.
We are looking for worker correspondents: cashiers, drivers, nurses, construction workers, cleaners, warehouse staff—anyone who wants to report on what’s really happening at work. Share a story, a tip, a victory, or a fightback. We’ll help you turn it into an article. Contact us at theworkerpaper@proton.me.
Image: Union rally outside Shuttlewagon Factory. Image Credit: IUPAT Instagram page @goiupat.
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