Kohler Co. Employees Say Wage Structure Is Why They’re On Strike

Striking workers at the Kohler Co. say that a two-tier wage system that pays newer workers less than more seasoned ones is one of the issues they hope to change.

United Auto Workers members plan around-the-clock picketing outside two Kohler Co. plants in Sheboygan County. Nearly 2,000 unionized employees are on strike.

Second-shift worker Scott Wagner said he remains committed to fighting a company proposal to keep a two-tier wage system that pays newer employees about $10 less per hour than longtime workers receive.

“Why am I worried about it? Because they’re our future,” Wagner said. “Plain and simple. You got to think 10 steps ahead and not just for today. I mean to me, that’s just common sense, you know?”

Some of the strikers at the Sheboygan County plants are newer employees seeking wages closer to what longtime workers are earning.

As the strike against Kohler moves into its third day, there’s a mix of older and younger workers on the picket line. Alyssa DeVoe has only worked at the company for 18 months and said she earns $12.69 an hour. DeVoe said that’s not much.

“I’m only 20 years old,” she said. “I live with a roommate, but I don’t make enough to live on my own. And also, people who have families and children, they can’t afford that.”

DeVoe is in the lower half of a two-tier wage system that workers accepted five years ago. But in the now-halted talks over a new contract, the United Auto Workers said it’s time to end the two-tier set-up and reduce the roughly $10 an hour wage gap between older and younger employees.

Kohler Co. officials said union leaders might have misrepresented what a strike can achieve.

But the Wisconsin AFL-CIO is urging citizens to join the UAW employees at the picket line.