Negotiation few days ago, there was a settlement of a labor dispute between P & H. manufacturers and their union. The company is a leading manufacturer of surface mining equipment and has it factory at West Milwaukee at 44 W. National Avenue and 4107 W. In Orchard St. (P&H Mining, United Steelworkers settle contract)

The company has been in existence for a long time, and was started more than a hundred years ago, and the main mode of transport were horse and buggies. From that stage, it has developed into manufacture of highly reliable mining equipment for the cost-focused surface mining industry of the world. There are some equipments of the company working at all times, and these are equipment like drills, shovels, draglines and other similar products. The company has a large number of dealers all over the world to attend to the equipment and the brand name of P & H. itself now represents a symbol of quality and reliability that has gone on for more than a hundred years. The company was set up by two individuals on December 1, 1884 through the setting up of a small machine and pattern shop which was being used to make component and device ideas to models and patterns. (An Enduring Symbol of Reliability)

The founders were Alonzo Pawling and Henry Harnischfeger. The craftsmanship of these individuals was well appreciated and the production of the company spread into knitting, grain drying, stamping, brewing and brick making, in addition to the contracts they got for repairs. Their movement into the area of specialized equipment came up with the rebuilding and improvement of a damaged overhead crane, the contract for which was got by Harnischfeger. The design was improved and the design was changed through supply of power through three electric motors, and this change immediately got the company a lot of orders from factories, utilities and railroad repair shops all over America. The company also developed a number of new products, and in 1911, one of the partners; Alonzo Pawling decided to sell of his interest in the business to his partner. The new proprietor decided to keep the old and renowned brand name of P & H. In a new corporation called the "Harnischfeger Corporation. These changes took place in 1912. (An Enduring Symbol of Reliability)

The new company started on a lot of new products and one of them was earthmoving equipment. The machines for cutting trenches and wheel loaders are among the first machines that were prepared by the company and these were followed by crawler mounted digging equipment and wheel type trenches. The company also made a lot of efforts for the nation in the First World War, and their main production was to make the overhead cranes. However the company continued on its usual production after the end of the war. The company developed the first gasoline engine powered dragline, which were mounted on crawlers. This development was followed by other equipment which also was mounted on crawlers and this was a shovel type excavator.

The Second World War gave another boost to the company and the contribution by the company was to produce more of the cranes and excavators for helping of the war effort. This led to the awards from the Navy and the Army for the efforts of the company in meeting the extra requirements for the war. The efforts of the company for the development of new products continues even today, and in 1999 they introduced a bigger, faster, and smarter loading tool which was for the use of the mines that were using the haulers of 240-tons, 320-tons, and 360-tons. In 2001, there was another product that could carry payloads of more than 100 tons, with faster times of the cycle and better systems for control. This was to help the mines achieve better performance and increased productivity. There was a further effort of the company for oil sands mines and this industry was served with new models. (An Enduring Symbol of Reliability)

The company is a leader in the world for the manufacture and service of the most modern large excavating and drilling machines. The machines are used in the mining of copper, coal, iron ore, silver, gold, diamonds, oil sands, phosphates, molybdenum, potash and other minerals and bedded materials. The large majority of ninety percent of the surface mines in the world uses the machinery manufactured by this company. The line of machines produced by this company can be separated in three lines...

The history of the company is full of innovation and continuous improvement of its products and today the company is best known by its 4100 series of electric mining shovels.
The leader among the shovels is the bigger, faster and smarter 4100 XPB, and that is considered to be the powerhouse of the industry. The machine is capable of picking up a 115 ton payload in just one scoop and the giant mining trucks that are used today can be filled up by the machine in just three or four loads. The method of providing power to the shovels is through the sophisticated PLC control system and this gives them easy maneuverability. The machines are the workhorses that are used in the mines of today. This is supported by the huge draglines which are 22 stories high; 400 feet long and has a weight of 5700 tons. The bite taken by the bucket excavates a space in which four cars can go in. These draglines are considered to be the powerhouses of the industry for the removal of overburden and reclamation of land from where coal and phosphates have been removed.

The biggest of these machines are now working in Canada and Australia, and the other type of machines offer a "hole package" in the area of drilling. The company supplies blast-hole drills which can be used for getting well crushed rock for the excavating and loading equipment. This is useful for saving wear and tear on the equipment and provides better quality of rock to the equipment used for crushing and processing. These can be customized for the company's drilling systems which are at the front of the mining process. The help is in terms of lower costs per ton, or per hour of production. The machinery for the company is produced in Milwaukee, Australia, Brazil, and South Africa and at a Japanese plant of an affiliate. The total factory area used is over 1.2 million sq. ft. (P&H - A Preferred Partner to the Surface Mining Industry)

Issues:

In the industrially advanced countries like Canada and the United States, the main method of gaining success to the demands of the workers is the question of the union that takes up the issue for the workers. Let us look at a present situation in Canada. In the entire area across Canada there is a union called the United Steelworkers, who are the representatives of more than 180,000 men and women who work in different types of industries. During the current year, 2004, the union is supposed to be negotiating 200 collective agreements and these agreements are supposed to cover some 28,000 members of their unions in different units.

There are many different negotiations that are scheduled to come up for discussion during the year and they include the negotiation for office employees in Sudbury that was done of 31st March; the discussions that were held with the Canadian Automobile Association in Thorn hill of Ontario held on 25th April; the discussions scheduled at Uniroyal Goodrich Tires in Kitchener of Ontario scheduled for 31st of May; with GDX Automotive planned for 1st June in Welland in Ontario; with Stelco in Nanticoke on 31st July; Amcan Castings Limited scheduled on 18th October in Hamilton; Collins and Aikman Plastics Limited in Stratford planned for 27th October; Teck-Corona Operating Corporation at the David Bell mine in Marathon on 31st October; Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. At the Cassidy Lake Mine in Sussex on December 31st, and North Atlantic Refining Limited in Come-by-chance also on December 31st. (Steel workers set to negotiate on behalf of 28,000 Across Ontario and Atlantic Canada)

There are also other meetings scheduled for the resolution of the difficulties of the seasonal workers in fish packing plants on the Acadian Peninsula that were due for renewal on 31st March, but the meetings were not fixed. An agreement had to be reached in Labrador for the collective agreement of the Rio Tinto controlled Iron Ore Company of Canada. This was due by the end of February as the previous agreement was expiring at that time and was expected to cover 1,089 employees. This was supposed to be a very important agreement as the company had a very bad record on human and worker's rights according to the workers of the company. There were also other workers who were covered as a group of security guards working in different firms like Falck, Securitas, Aeroguard, Garda, Rentokil…