UNION, TRI-CON RATIFY FIRST AGREEMENT

Workers at Tri-Con Industries Ltd. have ratified their first union contract after almost 10 months of negotiations.

"We have won some great improvements since the vote to install a union at the Cape Girardeau plant," said Sam Luebke, first contract supervisor for the Amalgamated Clothing and Textiles Workers Union, of St. Louis. "We feel everything has been a win-win situation for both the union and the Tri-Con company. This is the best first contract I've been involved with."

The new contract will provide wage increases, free health insurance, bonuses, improvements in work rules and conditions.

Tri-Con currently employs 210 people in Cape Girardeau. At the time of the union vote last June, the plant employed 233 people. Workers approved the union affiliation, 156-77. It was the third vote for a union at the plant.

Tri-Con plant manager Rick Roach was not available for comment Thursday, but earlier had said the company would work with employees to assure improvements in the operation.

The new contract, announced by the union Thursday, calls for a 45-cent an hour raise the first year for employees with more than three years seniority; 40 cents the second year and 40 cents the third year.

"All employees with less than three years seniority will have their wages raised proportionately," Luebke said.

The contract also calls for a new bonus program to reward employee productivity, with annual bonuses of up to $500 for employees with more than three years of seniority.

Other contract benefits call for free health insurance for employees and eligible dependents, a job-bidding procedure, increased seniority rights and a binding grievance and arbitration procedure.

Joan Suarez, international vice president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Union, AFL-CIO, CLC and chief negotiator of the contract, said the victory was a testament of the strength of the Tri-Con workers. "The contract is proof of what workers can accomplish when they have solidarity," she said.

Tri-Con, the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo Seat Co., manufactures automobile seat covers.

The first union vote at the plant came a year after the factory opened here in May 1984. The factory had almost 400 employees at that time, with 204 voting against the union and 193 in favor of the UAW. The second vote came in July 1985, when the vote was 123 in favor and 146 against representation by the UAW.