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Warren Buffett (R) talks with Mark Donegan, CEO of Precision Castparts, on the Precision Castparts sales space in exhibit corridor in the course of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Assembly on the CenturyLink Middle in Omaha, Nebraska, April 30, 2016.
Ryan Henriksen | Reuters
Warren Buffett is not going to intervene in a steelworkers strike at an organization owned by his agency Berkshire Hathaway, he informed Sen. Bernie Sanders this week.
Sanders wrote to Buffett on Tuesday and requested the Berkshire CEO to become involved in talks between United Steelworkers Native 40 and West Virginia-based Particular Metals. Precision Castparts, a subsidiary of Buffett’s conglomerate, owns Particular Metals.
In a letter dated Tuesday and launched by Sanders’ workplace on Thursday, Buffett informed the Vermont unbiased he wouldn’t step into the labor negotiations. He cited Berkshire’s coverage of letting its corporations “deal individually with their very own labor and personnel selections.”
“I am passing alongside your letter to the CEO of Precision Castparts however making no suggestion to him as to any motion,” Buffett wrote. “He’s chargeable for his enterprise.”
About 450 Particular Metals employees in Huntington, W.V. walked out on Oct. 1. Well being care is among the many largest points within the contract talks because the union tries to keep away from paying extra for a better deductible insurance coverage plan, United Steelworkers Native 40 President Chad Thompson mentioned Thursday.
Thompson mentioned Sanders’ workplace reached out to supply assist to the putting employees. He spoke to the senator by cellphone. He added that he appreciates Sanders providing help and hopes the elevated consideration will assist talks advance.
Thompson was upset to not attain a deal by Christmas. He mentioned negotiations will restart subsequent week, greater than three months into the strike.
“We’re doing no matter we will to attempt to assist us get again to work,” he mentioned, thanking the Huntington neighborhood and native unions for his or her help in the course of the strike.
Precision Castparts didn’t instantly reply to a request to remark.
In his letter to Buffett, Sanders requested him to “intervene” within the talks to “guarantee that the employees are handled with dignity and respect and obtain a good contract that rewards the onerous work and sacrifices they’ve made.”
“At a time when this firm and Berkshire Hathaway are each doing very nicely, there isn’t a purpose why employees employed by you need to be worrying about whether or not they’ll be capable of feed their youngsters or have well being care,” the senator wrote. “There is no such thing as a purpose why the usual of residing of those onerous working Individuals ought to decline. I do know that you just and Berkshire Hathaway can do higher than that.”
Sanders, a labor advocate, has put his weight behind a number of strikes and union drives lately. Most just lately, he rallied with putting Kellogg’s employees in Michigan this month.
Buffett, one of many 10 wealthiest individuals within the U.S., has not been as frequent a goal of Sanders’ ire as his friends together with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
In his letter to Buffett, Sanders famous that the Berkshire CEO has “spoken out eloquently on the disaster our nation now faces by way of rising earnings and wealth inequality.”
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