Union offers deal to Camillus Cutlery

Codger_64

Codger_64

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The Post-Standard
Friday, September 22, 2006
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer

The United Steelworkers Thursday presented Camillus Cutlery with a proposal seeking to settle a 4-month-old labor dispute at the knife maker. It was the first time representatives of the company and United Steelworkers Local 4783 have met since June 19.

Company negotiators told the union representatives they will review the proposal and get back to them within a week, said Jim Valenti, the Steelworkers' international representative.

The union is confused about who is in charge of the company. "Numerous sources" have told the Steelworkers that the cutlery's president, James Furgal, resigned this month, Valenti said. That also was the word within the company, according to a non-union worker. However, Furgal sat Thursday on the company's side at the bargaining table, Valenti said. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

That's just the latest twist to the strike by 78 union workers that began May 17. The union's contract expired March 31.

Local 4783 filed unfair labor charges with the National Labor Relations board in May, June and July. In September, the union withdrew the charges to clear the way for a potential buyer of the knife-making plant, in the heart of the village of Camillus.

It should be noted that while Mr. Furgal may well have resigned his official position with Camillus, he is also a major shareholder. In small companies, it is not uncommon for the shareholders to hold offices in the corporation in addition to duty offices at the factory in the day-to-day operations. I have not seen the organizational chart for Camillus Cutlery (these are required to be refreshed at least annually), but I would imagine it is closely held as it was with the corporation in which I prepared these charts quarterly (we had a lot of turnover and reorganization among seven U.S. facilities).

Codger
 
Well, I guess we will know by next Friday. I keep putting off making a large order of knives thinking I might have plenty of time, if it doesn't happen this time around, I guess the order will be place.
Thanks Codger
 
I forgot to mention that I posted the article with attribution by permission from Charley Hannagan.

I still hold hope that Camillus Cutlery will survive, in some incarnation, as an American owned and operated manufacturer. "It ain't over til it's over":Yogi Berra

Codger
 
In the future, Codger, please post a link to the article or story. We just have no idea if the post you made is completely factual, or did you leave something out.
 
I don't post alot, but if you would like to see the source of a quote it might be a little more political, not to mention courteous, to just ask for a link to it without out any implications that someone (especially a long time member) is falsifying the quote.

Just a suggestion,
 
Nuke, most boards and forums do have rules to cover such things.
Edited by Tx for courtesy which is all so important.
 
Presumably the union has an attorney representing them in this matter.
And part of that attorney's job is knowing exactly whom to negotiate with.
 
"Local 4783 filed unfair labor charges with the National Labor Relations board in May, June and July. In September, the union withdrew the charges to clear the way for a potential buyer of the knife-making plant, in the heart of the village of Camillus. "

Does this mean that the union has been keeping buyers away all this time? Besides, weren't the charges withdrawn because they had no merit? Which means, they were bogus charges?
 
http://http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1160471532282270.xml&coll=1

Camillus Cutlery strikers say no again
Local 4783 of the United Steelworkers rejects company's latest offer.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer
The United Steelworkers will continue their four-month strike at Camillus Cutlery this morning after rejecting the company's last, best and final contract offer - the same one they unanimously rejected before walking out in May.

Members of Local 4783, voting at the Camillus Fire Department Monday afternoon, said they had little incentive to approve the proposal that didn't guarantee jobs to three-quarters of its 78 members, while cutting wages and benefits for those who would remain.

Union officials said management also told them the company would not help workers file for federal training and unemployment benefits available to workers who've lost their jobs due to foreign competition.

The company vowed to begin hiring permanent replacement workers if union members did not accept the offer, union officials said.

Joe Morabito, 53, of Camillus, said he rejected the contract even though a "no" vote would likely mean he'd be out of his job of 17 years.

The company earlier cut his wages by $1.50 per hour, and the proposal would have cut them by another $3.50, he said.

"I gave to this company, and gave, and gave, and gave, and there's nothing else to give," Morabito said.

What will he do now?

"Whatever. I can drive a truck. I can go into the restaurant business. I've got a lot of things under my belt," he said.
 
For some reason, the link you posted didn't work for me. It may be that it is a subscriber link, or maybe the area of the country I am in. Here is the link to the second page of the story, and a transcription. Word-for-word, I assure you, added emphasis mine.

http://www.syracuse.com/poststandar...ness-5/1160471532282270.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

Camillus Cutlery strikers say no again
Local 4783 of the United Steelworkers rejects company's latest offer.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer

Page 2 of 2

The union has been on strike for 146 days. Members receive state unemployment compensation and strike benefits from the union. Some already have taken jobs elsewhere, and Monday others said they'll begin looking for work, too.

The company requested the union vote in a secret ballot.

United Steelworkers international union representative Jim Valenti said workers again rejected the contract offer, but he would not say by how much. The union will ask the company for another meeting, he said.

The receptionist at Camillus Cutlery Monday afternoon said the company had no comment on the union vote.

Company negotiators told union representatives that Camillus would call back 20 or fewer workers, Valenti said. The company told him that it needed fewer workers because it was transitioning from making knives to repackaging imported knives, he said.
Valenti said the company rejected a union request to jointly file for federal benefits, which allow workers to receive greater unemployment benefits and training when they lose their jobs due to foreign competition.

It's up to workers or their representatives to apply for those benefits, but the information needed to fill out the application comes from employers.

In its only statement on the matter, Camillus Cutlery in May said that it had asked workers for concessions because it faced a severe financial crisis.

The cutlery had cut workers' hours from five to four days a week earlier this year. The company sought cuts in wages, paid vacations and holidays and asked workers to pay more for their health insurance.

Camillus Cutlery has had labor peace throughout much of its history.

In 1876, German immigrant Adolph Kastor founded a knife importer in New York City. Kastor bought the small factory that became Camillus Cutlery in 1902. Eight years later, about half of the plant's work force walked off the job to form a union, according to The Post-Standard's archives.

The last known strike at the plant was in September 1952. Union members did not return to work until December.

So. While this leaves a lot of questions unanswered, it answers a lot for me. No, we'd rather be unemployed than give further concessions. A repackager of imported knives. A transition.:(

Codger
 
I just MIGHT could possibly buy a Chinese made knife, IF it was a Chinese branded knife, but buy a cheap imported knife stuck in a Camillus box, uh uh not gonna happen. This is the end of yet another old revered American company, pecked apart by various pressures and influences, and the "name" will live on to be stuck on a bunch of imported slop. Gone the same place as Schrade, to the purgatory of the name being used after the real company was wrecked to add some seeming legitimacy to knives that are just trash.
 
I could see it is Camillus was bought but for the present managment/owners to start a repack company using Imported Blades that is just wrong.

If that is indeed the case I hope they do go broke or better yet move to the country they are supporting by buying there knives.

Sad days when US companies are out sourcing products to some other country and import them here....Car, guns, knives and the list goes on.

US citizens lose jobs while big business goes on as usual and now even small business.

Karsten
 
See what happens when to much is hushed up and no communication is given and the little guy is to afraid to speak up. THE US STARTS TO BECOME A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY - politics - but this should be for another forum.

Look around you, what do you see. As the old saying says "what goes around comes around". Only our actions speak of who we are and when we don't act on them there are consequences.
 
OK, $322 later, I have 11 more knives..... at least I won't be looking at these, and wanting at the all the time, and since I was going to buy them anyway, the process was just sped up some.
 
Camillus is an old line American cutlery with roots going way back, but always a family owned business, first Charles Sherwood, then the Kastor family, and then the Baer family and their decendents. It has never been a publicly owned corporation with stocks for sale through the stock exchange. In this regard, it is much like my own business. I can do what I wish with it. I can expand it, maintain it, use the profits as I see fit. I can close it and sell the bits and pieces, or I can sell it as a going concern. Or I can change it's focus, and instead of concentrating on new construction, become a service company. Or I can turn it into a retail business, or subcontract construction from other companies. I can hire my children and their spouses and pay them however I wish, or I can hire no one and do all the work myself. I could even hire crews of foriegn nationals to do the work if I so choose, just as the cutleries did.

Yes, I do have compassion and empathy for the workers who gave so much for so long. At the same time, they were each their own "company", exchanging their time and skills for renumeration. Each and every one, union member or not, is/was a free agent with the power to negotiate, or settle for what they were offered, or to move on at any time to a better position. At this juncture, some few employees will likely elect to stay on and learn new skills, become a part of "Camillus Packing Company", or whatever the company chooses to call itself. Many, no doubt, will move on if they have not already.

Yes, it is a sad commentary on the U.S. economy, and the buying habits of the American public, and the lack of interest by the government in protecting American markets from unfair foriegn competition. But in the same breath I must say that manufacturers here who are unable or unwilling to change to meet a changing market environment are dooming themselves to a similar fate. From a producer of goods, to a service industry for foriegn producers of goods. Or dissolution.

I am currently reading some very deep and thought provoking history of the U.S. cutlery industry written long ago by a consummate insider. Nothing has changed but the rate of change. The change is exponential, not linier, but the same factors that caused the Devine family to sell Ulster, the Kastors to sell Camillus, that caused the Schrades to sell, the Mirandos to sell Imperial, Baer to sell his holdings in England, France, Germany, Mexico still hold true today. No one single factor can be held up as the cause of the misfortunes of the cutlery companies, or individuals for that matter.

My best wishes to all who worked at Camillus over the years, and to the managers and owners. And to the remaining American cutlery industry. I can only hope that Buck, Case, Benchmade, and the other still prosperous cutleries can make use of some of the experienced, skilled cutlers from Camillus.

Codger
 
I just bought that Cuda Maxx I've been holding off on. Thanks for the heads up.
 
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