Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote a letter to the Berkshire Hathaway CEO, requesting that he intervene in a United Steelworkers union strike at the Special Metals plant in Huntington, West Virginia. They’ve been on strike for three months. Special Metals is a unit of Precision Castparts, which is owned by Buffett’s Berkshire.
His letter said employees were offered a contract with no pay raise the first year, only a $2,000 signing bonus, and then pay increases of 1% the second year and 2% a year the following three years. It said the company wants to raise the cost of health coverage for workers from $275 a month to $1,000. And it reduced vacation time they have already accrued.
But Buffett responded with a letter quoting Berkshire’s annual financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which tells investors that the management of its different companies is left up to the executives at each subsidiary — not Berkshire itself (or Buffett).
“Our companies deal individually with their own labor and personnel decisions (except for the selection of the CEO),” he said in his response to Sanders, which was released by Sanders’ office. “I’m passing along your letter to the CEO of Precision Castparts, but making no recommendations to him as to any action. He is responsible for his business.”
Source : cnn
