The Race is On to End 15 Week-Old Strike Between Union Workers and Cretex

Striking workers hope to get Medtronic’s attention and support with billboard on Twin Cities Marathon route

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. (September 30, 2013) –More than 12,000 runners participating in the Oct. 6 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon along with thousands of spectators will get a glimpse of another marathon going on in the Twin Cities. A billboard, located near Hennepin Avenue and Seventh Street, in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, will tell marathon participants that title sponsor Medtronic has failed to listen to striking workers from Cretex, a company Medtronic continues to do business with. For 15 weeks more than 40 members of Laborers Local 563 have been on the picket line fighting to save self-funded retirement benefits Cretex wants to abolish and essentially profit from.

The billboard featuring a parody of the character “Cavity Sam” from the classic board game Operation communicates that it is time for Medtronic, a Cretex client, to step in and help bring the strike to a conclusion. “We support all the runners who are participating in the 32nd Annual Twin Cities Marathon, and we hope they will support our members whose endurance has been tested as they fight for their retirement security,” said Tim Mackey, business manager for Twin Cities-based Local 563 of the Laborers International Union of North America. “So far, Medtronic refused to meet our members to hear their side of the story, but we hope to change their minds..”

Medtronic is among Cretex’s highest-profile clients, and striking workers simply want the opportunity to explain their plight to Medtronic’s leadership and explain how they think Medtronic could help resolve the dispute.   On September 2, Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak sent Local 563 a letter which indicated that the Medtronic staff had spoken with Cretex representatives, while ignoring the union’s repeated requests for a meeting.

Members of Local 563 who work at Cretex’ Shakopee, Minn. concrete plant, have been on the picket lines since June 19 when they went on strike to protest company plans to slash retirement benefits and self-funded pension plans.

Representatives of organized labor have taken issue with Medtronic’s decision to engage Cretex while refusing to meet with striking workers.  In a letter to Ishrak, Shar Knutson, President of the 300,000-member strong Minnesota AFL-CIO, states that Medtronic’s response shows “profound disrespect for those employees, for organized labor, and for working people”.  The letter urges Medtronic to “extend the same courtesy to Cretex’s employees” that the company has extended to management.

 “We wish the runners in the marathon the very best,” said Mackey. “An event like this gives us the chance to make another appeal to Medtronic and get them at the very least sit down with us and hear our side of the story. We all want to get to the finish line and the support of Medtronic can help us get there.”

About Local 563
Local 563 represents nearly 5,000 skilled construction craft laborers that are trained in many facets of the construction industry. These laborers apply their trade in 32 counties in Minnesota and the state of North Dakota. Local 563 is affiliated with Laborers’ International Union of North America LIUNA, based in Washington, D.C.  Negotiations broke down on June 18, when Cretex failed to budge from its unreasonable demand to eliminate pension contributions and slash workers’ retirement package by roughly 80 percent. Under the company’s proposal, employees would see hourly compensation (wage plus retirement contribution) drop by anywhere from $2.91 and $4.07 in 2013 depending on an employee’s age and the amount he or she puts into the company’s 401(k) plan.  Simply put that’s the equivalent of a 12- to 17-percent pay cut at a time when demand for construction materials is on the rise. For more information, visit the strike Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Local563WorkersOnStrike  or Local 563’s micro site at www.cretexworkers.com

About Cretex Companies, Inc.
Cretex, established in 1917, is a privately held, diversified manufacturing company headquartered in Elk River , Minnesota. Cretex Concrete Products provides reinforced concrete pipe and other precast and prestressed concrete products serving the infrastructure needs of the central United States . Cretex Companies employs about 1,800 people in 35 locations in 11 states.

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