Warren Buffett (R) and Marked Negan, CEO of Precision Castparts at the Precision Castparts booth in the Exhibition Hall, at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders’ Meeting held at the Century Link Center in Omaha, Nebraska on April 30, 2016. I talk.
Ryan Henriksen | Reuters
Warren Buffett will not intervene in a steel worker strike at a company owned by his company Berkshire Hathaway, he told Senator Bernie Sanders this week.
Sanders wrote to Buffett on Tuesday asking the CEO of Berkshire to participate in negotiations between the United Steelworkers’ Local 40 and West Virginia-based specialty metals. Precision Castparts, a subsidiary of Buffett’s conglomerate, owns Special Metals.
In a letter released Thursday by Sanders’ office on Tuesday, Buffett told an independent Vermont state that he would not go into labor negotiations. He quoted Berkshire’s policy of having Berkshire companies handle their own labor and personnel decisions separately.
“I will give your letter to the CEO of Precision Castparts, but I will not recommend him for any action,” Buffett wrote. “He is responsible for his business.”
About 450 Special Metals workers in Huntington, West Virginia, left on October 1.
United Steelworkers Local 40 and Precision Castparts did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a letter to Buffett, Sanders spoke in a meeting to “ensure that workers are treated with dignity and respect and that they receive a fair contract that rewards their efforts and sacrifices.” Asked to “intervene”.
“There is no reason to worry about whether the workers you employ can feed or get medical care at a time when both this company and Berkshire Hathaway are in very good shape. “The Senator wrote. “There is no reason for these hard-working Americans to have a lower standard of living. I know you and Berkshire Hathaway can do better than that.”
Labor advocate Sanders has put his weight behind multiple strikes and union movements in recent years. More recently, he has rallyed with Kellogg workers on strike in Michigan this month.
Buffett, one of the ten wealthiest people in the United States, is not as often targeted by Sanders’ anger as his peers such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
In a letter to Buffett, Sanders said Berkshire’s CEO “eloquently spoke of the crisis we are currently facing in terms of increasing income and wealth inequality.”
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