GRAND RAPIDS — Fiery speeches drowned out the honks of passing motorists as hundreds of striking UPM Blandin workers and supporters gathered for a rally Friday, July 21, in Grand Rapids.
“I swear to goodness I saw the most American thing I’ve seen in the past 10 years happen today,” said Zak Radzak, secretary/treasurer for the Teamsters Local No. 346, to an engaged crowd. “There was a man walking across the street with a picket sign on his shoulder. And that is America, boys and girls, that is what this country was founded on.”
Mill workers walked off the job nearly a week ago after voting to strike amid contract negotiations with company leadership. This is the first strike ever authorized by Teamsters union members at the mill, which has been a major employer and central feature of the city of Grand Rapids since 1901. It’s also one of the largest suppliers of magazine and catalog paper in North America.
Parties met for contract negotiations again Thursday, but a company spokesperson called the two offers “fundamentally different.”
“We are now going to take the time to review both proposals and consider potential paths to finding an agreement,” according to a UPM Blandin statement Thursday afternoon. “ … The Company remains engaged in and committed to the bargaining process. We are hopeful we can move forward and reach an agreement when negotiations resume.”
Paper mill leadership proposed to resume talks in nearly two weeks on Aug. 2. The paper mill will likely remain shuttered until an agreement is reached to send employees back to work.
A total of 166 members of Teamsters Local No. 346 are on strike, accounting for 80% of the plant’s workforce. Teamsters Union President Jeff Oveson said workers are demanding better wages, elimination of a two-tier system of benefits for newer employees and changes to staffing levels.
Spiking overtime hours are leading to what Oveson characterized as dangerous working conditions for overtired production workers. Employees are also frustrated due to the recent history of reductions in the mill’s production, he said. Workers have vowed to remain on strike for as long as it takes.
In its communications about the strike, UPM Blandin has not addressed any specific claims made by the union.
At Friday’s rally, younger employees and families gathered alongside longtime mill workers, including 44-year-old Chris Rychart of Grand Rapids. Rychart is a millwright in the paper roll shop at UPM Blandin. His works consists of rebuilding the rolls by measuring housing and replacing bearings on the paper rolls, among other precision work.
He said a two-tier wage and benefit system — to which the union originally agreed in 2016 — that places newer workers at lower wages and benefits means some of his coworkers struggle to pay the bills.
“They're making less than I was when I started here back 17 years ago,” Rychart said.
According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the average annual wage for paper manufacturing jobs in 2022 was about $82,250, or about 18% higher than the average across all industries in the state. Union officials have declined to provide specifics about what UPM Blandin employees make in either tier or how much of a raise they’re seeking.
Speakers included others in union leadership and DFL state legislators Grant Hauschild and Dave Lislegard. Both represent districts outside the region, but said they came to town in solidarity with the striking workers.
"They're making less than I was when I started here back 17 years ago."Chris Rychart, UPM Blandin millwright
Lislegard of Aurora was once a steelworker himself in Hoyt Lakes and said politics don’t matter when it comes to workers’ rights.
“I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican, you voted for Trump, you voted for Biden. I don't give a shit,” Lislegard said. “The point is, is that you're standing right here in solidarity. You're standing here, across the region. I don't represent you as a legislator. I represent you as brothers and sisters in the labor movement.”
Lislegard encouraged the workers to not break the strike without the company meeting their demands.
Hauschild said the mill workers are part of a national labor movement making waves in Minnesota and across the nation. He pointed to an impending UPS strike, those at hospitals and workers at Cleveland Cliffs' Northshore Mining Co., which unionized this week after multiple previous attempts.
“We are having a union moment in this state and in this country, and you guys are a part of it,” Hauschild said. “And what we need these folks to understand — you know, the further, the bigger these corporations grow, the bigger these organizations grow, the more disconnected they get from the reality of what's going on at the ground level. Shit doesn't move without the Teamsters. … Paper doesn't move, trucks don't move. You guys move it.”
Thurday night and Friday morning, Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic also visited with striking workers, who have maintained a 24-hour presence on the streets.
Members of other unions including teachers and government employees joined the picket line Friday.
Christopher Worth, 51, is the president of AFSCME Local No. 1626, which represents Itasca County Courthouse employees.
“All the unions, they really need to stick together when they have these labor issues. I know if we end up going on strike, we're gonna be looking for support from these groups as well,” Worth said. “Just the way that things are, people need to be paid well and we need to be out here and showing force. Because it's not just affecting the Blandin employees, it's going to be affecting all the employees in this area.”
History of contraction
Today’s UPM Blandin workforce of 230 is about one-quarter of those counted at the turn of the century.
Duluth-based Business North reported total employment at the mill was 900 in 2000. In 2003, the company shuttered two paper machines, affecting approximately 300 positions and leaving about 500 on staff. This represented half of the original workforce at the time of the 1997 purchase of the mill by Helsinki, Finland-based UPM-Kymmene.
Weeks after that announcement, the Teamsters Local No. 346 authorized a strike, although one did not materialize.
In 2008, UPM Blandin counted about 400 workers, according to a Business North story outlining the union’s new four-year contract. Specific terms of the agreement were not made public. However, the contract was reported to include general wage increases, changes to the benefits package and some language changes.
In October 2017, the company announced the permanent shutdown of another one of its machines, resulting in the elimination of 150 jobs. The closure was in response to overcapacity in the North American paper market, the company told Business North at the time.
According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, jobs in paper manufacturing declined by 43.2% from 2002 to 2022 — a loss of 2,419 jobs. Of those lost, 518 occurred since 2019, just before the pandemic through the end of last year. The state agency also forecast another 11.6% job loss through 2030.
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