Middleby hiring after buyout
As it turned out, Middleby Corp., which experienced a 12-week worker lockout in July, has done some recent hiring.
The Elgin-based commercial oven maker locked its 135 workers out of its Elgin facility in the summer and only let them return after Teamsters Local 714 voted for a five-year contract that raised employees' health insurance costs and suspended seniority protections.
Such lockouts are rare in Illinois so it garnered attention.
After the lockout, Middleby offered buyouts to workers, and more workers than anticipated accepted. So now Middleby finds itself hiring workers.
"The company says it needs 100 people at the plant and they only have about 85 now," said Gino Rodriguez, a union representative.
Middleby declined to comment on the lockout's aftermath.
The company offered $1,000 a year for every year an employee worked at the firm, up to $15,000. With a $2,500 signing bonus, some workers walked away with $17,500, Rodriguez said.
About 60 workers took the deal, leaving about 70 at the plant, Rodriguez said. The firm since hired about 15 more workers.
Seniority protection will continue to be suspended until the end of January, Rodriguez said.
The new contract calls for 20-cents an hour pay raises for the first two years, 25-cents an hour raises in the third year and 3 percent raises each of the final two years, according to the union. Before the raises, Middleby union workers made between $16.57 and $19.50 an hour, according to the union.
"All the bad feelings are gone," Rodriguez said.