Our Position
At Eaton, there is nothing we value more than our employees. Our Santa Ana family is already committed to providing employees competitive pay, excellent benefits, and a safe, engaging work environment. We work hard to provide you unique opportunities and recognize the contributions you bring to the table.
So, I will cut to the chase. I don’t think you need a union.
We invest heavily in our employees to ensure that we attract and retain highly qualified individuals who make our Santa Ana facility great. We listen to our employees and work hard to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect. I love working directly with you to solve problems, improve performance, and most importantly, build long-lasting relationships. Working directly with such great people is why I have loved working at Santa Ana for 8 years.
Where unions are present, we work to meet and bargain in good faith with unions if the company believes they are not good for the business or do not make business sense. The union organizer told us a rumor that you might have heard – if a union were to come to Santa Ana, employees would get some large wage increases. There are no guarantees in collective bargaining. You could end up with more, things could stay the same, or you could end up with less. Regardless, if you join a union, you will be required to pay monthly union dues.
There really is no way to know what could happen in collective bargaining. For example, on March 10, 2022, Eaton and IBEW-represented employees in Horseheads, New York agreed to a contract that provides a 2.75% wage increase in 2024, which is less than the 4% increase you received in March 2024. But in Horseheads, employees also had to agree to freeze their defined benefit pension plan. In the past 4 years, IBEW chapters in Eaton locations have closed and frozen all their defined benefit pension plans. Negotiations can be a give and take, and we will not agree to something that hurts us or limits our ability to compete in a difficult market. Every term and condition of employment is on the table for negotiations. This is what the law requires.
Rather than listen to a third party’s sales pitch about what might happen (or might not happen) in the future, I am proud about what Eaton has already done for this site since 2020:
- Instead of closing, Eaton invested in this site and has now doubled headcount,
- We have made your jobs easier through investing in better work processes such as the Ehrt Machine, the Automated Wrapper, safer forklifts, new lighting, and truck restraint systems,
- Enhanced machine guarding to keep you safer, and
- New benefits such as paid parental leave, wellness reimbursements, 401(k) matches, HSA contributions, and tuition reimbursement, among many others.
Most importantly, as soon as Eaton purchased this site, we have taken action to invest in you, including significant year-over-year wage increases that were truly unprecedented for this business.
The choice is up to you, but whatever choice you make, you should know the facts about what unions really do…and why so many employees choose not to join a union.
If you have any questions, my door is always open to you.
Hector Luna
What our Employees Have Without a Union
- Competitive Pay
- Health insurance, which is the same insurance nearly all unions negotiated for
- Enhanced 401(k) plan which no union site enjoys today
- Vacation leave which generally has higher top outs than what our union sites offer
- Opportunity to purchase an extra week of vacation, not offered at Eaton union locations
- Better short-term and long-term disability insurance compared to other Eaton union sites
- Paid parental leave, which union sites do not have
- Better life insurance benefits
- Culture focused on engagement