DISSERTATION MANUFACTURING PRECARITY: A CASE STUDY OF THE GRAIN PROCESSING CORPORATION/UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL 86D LOCKOUT IN MUSCATINE, IOWA Submitted by Jacqulyn S. Gabriel Department of Sociology In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Summer 2016 Doctoral Committee: Advisor: Douglas Murray Michael Carolan Peter Leigh Taylor Dimitris Stevis Copyright by Jacqulyn S. Gabriel 2016 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT MANUFACTURING PRECARITY: A CASE STUDY OF THE GRAIN PROCESSING CORPORATION/UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL 86D LOCKOUT IN MUSCATINE, IOWA On August 22, 2008, approximately 360 workers were locked out of their jobs at Grain Processing Corporation (GPC) in Muscatine, Iowa, after the company and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 86D failed to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement at the expiration of their existing agreement. This study examines the GPC/UFCW lockout within the context of the growth of precarious employment in the United States. Using this labor dispute as a case study, it illustrates how lockouts are implicated in the generation of precarious employment and how workers and unions respond when confronted with employment precarity. This study suggests that the steady decline in union membership, density, and collective bargaining power in U.S. manufacturing over the last several decades has placed those manufacturing workers who are still covered by collective bargaining agreements at risk of their employers initiating lockouts as a means to displace and replace them and their jobs with more precarious forms of employment. Indeed, by locking out its bargaining unit employees and replacing them with workers hired through a temporary employment agency, GPC was able to effectively take around 360 relatively well-paid, permanent, unionized manufacturing jobs and turn them into precarious jobs. In doing so, the company also rendered some 360 workers precarious. Thus, in addition to demonstrating how GPC was able to deploy a lockout to achieve ii precarious employment relations, this study examines how the locked out workers and their union responded to the precarious position they were placed in as a result of the labor dispute. This study draws on data gathered primarily through in-depth interviews with a sample consisting of 62 of the approximately 360 locked out workers roughly five and a half years into the GPC/UFCW labor dispute. It summarizes, describes, analyzes, and explains these workers’ experiences both prior to and following the lockout. In doing so, it highlights both the negative and positive effects of the labor dispute from the perspective of those workers who experienced it firsthand. For instance, it reveals a number of difficulties these workers faced as a result of being locked out of their jobs. Yet, it also reveals that most of these workers experienced a rather remarkable “recovery” after ultimately being displaced from their jobs at GPC as a result of the lockout. In fact, the majority of workers in this study who sought reemployment after being locked out by the company were able to secure jobs that were comparable, and in most cases superior, to their jobs at GPC in terms of wages, benefits, and working conditions. I use an inductive approach to analyze and conceptualize the factors that contributed to these workers’ “recovery” from the lockout. This analysis shows that the most important factors in explaining the relatively positive outcome of the labor dispute for a significant number of workers in this study was their social capital and human capital coupled with a favorable local labor market. Overall, this study contributes a worker-centered account of the changing nature and quality of employment relations in the United States. It also contributes to our understanding and analysis of how employment precarity is being generated and how workers and unions are responding to employers’ efforts aimed at achieving precarious employment relations. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of many people. I would like to begin by thanking the locked out workers who participated in this study. They welcomed me into their homes and lives and shared their time, thoughts, and experiences with me. Because I promised them confidentiality and anonymity, I cannot acknowledge them personally, but I hope each and every one of them knows how essential they were to this study and how grateful I am for their participation and cooperation. I would also like to thank my advisor, Dr. Douglas Murray, who helped me conceptualize, carry out, and ultimately complete this dissertation. Over the years it has taken me to complete not only this dissertation, but also my doctoral degree, he has continuously offered knowledge, guidance, support, and encouragement. I also want to express many thanks to the rest of my committee members, Dr. Dimitris Stevis, Dr. Michael S. Carolan, and Dr. Peter Leigh Taylor, for their expertise, support, and encouragement throughout my graduate career and in completing this dissertation. In addition, I would like to offer my appreciation to all of the professors at Colorado State University who have played a part in my academic career and success. Finally, I would like to thank my family, friends, and fellow graduate students who were always there for me in whatever capacity I needed them to be as I made my way through graduate school and completing this dissertation. I am genuinely grateful for their unconditional love, encouragement, and generosity. iv DEDICATION This project is dedicated to my family and the other families affected by the GPC/UFCW lockout. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDMENTS ................................................................................................................ iv DEDICATION .................................................................................................................................v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 The GPC/UFCW Lockout....................................................................................................1 The Study’s Contribution to Understanding Precarious Employment ................................3 Overview of this Dissertation .............................................................................................7 CHAPTER TWO: THE RISE OF PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT & THE RESHAPING ......... OF U.S. LABOR RELATIONS.....................................................................................................11 Employer Tenure ...............................................................................................................21 Job Displacement Rates .....................................................................................................22 Long-Term Unemployment ...............................................................................................24 Perceived Job Security/Insecurity ......................................................................................25 Risk –Shifting from Employer to Employees ....................................................................30 Nonstandard Work Arrangements & the Temporary Staffing Industry (TSI) ...................33 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH SRATEGY AND METHODS ...............................................46 Gaining Entrée4 ...................................................................................................................9 Sampling ............................................................................................................................50 Demographic Information ..................................................................................................57 Data Collection ..................................................................................................................58 Supplementary Interviews and Data .................................................................................62 CHAPTER FOUR: EMPLOYER GENERATED PRECARITY ..................................................66 Declining Labor Relations & Fringe Benefits ...................................................................68 Concessionary Bargaining .................................................................................................72 Recovering the Losses in 2008 ..........................................................................................74 Talk of a Strike...................................................................................................................75 Union Members’ Conflicting Interests ..............................................................................76 The Turning Tide ...............................................................................................................78 vi The Two-Tiered System ....................................................................................................80 The Weeks Leading Up to the Lockout .............................................................................83 “Shadowing” the Bargaining Unit .....................................................................................84 The Company’s “Final Offer” ...........................................................................................85