Xerox Reaches Two-Year Pact with Oregon Union Workers

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Xerox Reaches Two-Year Pact with Oregon Union Workers

Xerox Corp.    on Wednesday said it has reached a new two-year labor contract with the union representing 165 manufacturing employees at its Wilsonville plant.

Felisa Hagins, political director for the Service Employee International Union Local 49, said 90 percent of the rank-and-file workers ratified the pact last week.

“It was a difficult contract,” Hagins said Wednesday. “People felt like they really got to a place with the economics they needed."

Xerox agreed.
“Both union and the company have agreed that the contract balances the needs of our employees with the needs of our business,” Xerox spokeswoman Erin Isselmann said in a prepared statement.

Norwalk, Conn.-based Xerox employs more than 1,000 workers in Wilsonville at a solid ink printer manufacturing plant.

Last month, the workers represented by SEIU Local 49 turned down what was described as Xerox’s “last and best final offer,” prompting a vote among rank-and-file to authorize its bargaining team to call for a strike.

Hagins at the time said talks had been ongoing since July 25, with proposed changes to Xerox’s short-term disability plan being a major sticking point.

Hagins said the company allows employees around six days of short-term disability paid at 80 percent of their salary for line workers and 100 percent for everyone else. But it was proposing to reduce that to 60 percent for all but management.

On Wednesday, Hagins said that under the new contract, the short-term disability payment will shrink to 60 percent of a worker’s salary at the end of the contract, but the company will now allow workers to use their vacation time and other paid time off to make up the difference.“We feel like we reached a good compromise,” she said.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111031/NEWS01/111031008
Xerox, Barnes & Noble settle lawsuits over patents
Xerox Corp. and Barnes & Noble Inc. have ended a patent fight. BarnesandNoble.com sued Xerox in August 2010 as a pre-emptive strike, saying that Xerox had accused it of violating Xerox-held patents.

Xerox countersued a month later, seeking damages for BarnesandNoble.com’s unauthorized use of patented technology.

The settlement, approved by U.S District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin for the Southern District of New York, has the companies dismissing their claims and covering their own legal costs.

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November 8, 2011 at 8:01 AM