UWUA members and their union and community allies across the country continue to stand up against the rank corporate greed exhibited by American Water and its top managers.

Union workers are carrying their fight for justice from the nation’s largest for-profit water utility to new battlegrounds – on picket lines at American Water facilities, in communities served by the company, from the floor of the corporation’s annual shareholder meeting, and elsewhere.

American Water Campaign for Justice Healthcare Cuts and Local Contract Concessions

For years, American Water has waged an unrelenting assault on hourly workers represented by UWUA and other unions through concession demands during contract negotiations.

At the beginning of this year, the company unilaterally implemented a 52% hike in employee premiums for family healthcare coverage, while also imposing steep cuts in healthcare coverage levels. American Water imposed these takeaways even though UWUA and other union members overwhelmingly rejected the onerous concessions last fall during nationwide negotiations for a new National Benefits Agreement.

The UWUA is challenging the legality of the unilateral takeaways in charges pending before the National Labor Relations Board.

Perhaps even worse, negotiations at the local level are routinely in crisis because of American Water proposals to eliminate any semblance of job security for workers – including demands for the unlimited right to contract out all union jobs.

“The problem with American Water is its utter contempt for the rights of its hourly workers and the unions that represent them,” observes Mike Langford, UWUA national president. “We didn’t choose this fight – American Water management did that – but the UWUA is always prepared to stand up for our members whenever they are subjected to unfair attacks. We won’t back down.”

Rank and File Mobilization

UWUA members have been resisting American Water’s assault through a series of informational pickets and other job actions at company worksites across the country.

On April 13, Local 395 members in Shrewsbury, N.J. staged a spirited picket line to mark the one-year anniversary of expiration of their union contract. The demonstration – which lined both sidesthe main road outside the company’s offices – was also joined by UWUA National Representative Shawn Garvey and Assistant to the President Sam Weinstein. Union workers in Shrewsbury have been without a contract for more than a year after rejecting management demands for unfair concessions. The company’s demands include a proposal to slash injured workers’ pay by 34% during the first 14 weeks they are recovering from a workplace injury, and then to restrict their right to use earned sick leave to help make up the loss in family income.

“Our position in Shrewsbury is that we will last ‘one day longer,’” declared Local 395 President Don Johnston. “We said ‘no’ to these unfair attacks on workers last year, and one year later our answer is still the same.”

Nor have UWUA members restricted their actions to American Water worksites. On March 6, a caravan of Local 537 members converged outside the home of Pennsylvania American Water President Kathy Pape in Mechanicsburg. More than 80 Local 537 members from across Pennsylvania trav-