top of page
80 more days off a year, ratified 3 to 1 by the union

80 more days off a year, ratified 3 to 1 by the union

Gopher Resource

Manufacturing

80

more days off per year, ratified 3 to 1

3 to 1

union ratification

26

weekends off per year

The problem

Gopher Resource's Eagan plant is a heavy industrial lead smelter and battery recycling site (Teamsters Local 120), with 12 salaried and 160 hourly employees processing 18 to 20 tons of lead a day. RMPC, Furnace, and Refining ran fixed shifts with fixed days off. Most of RMPC worked Monday to Friday even though weekends needed coverage, and a hybrid weekend shift was inefficient. Furnace and Refining needed 7 people for every 5 positions on a 5-on, 2-off pattern. Leads and maintenance ran 10-hour schedules with lap days and overlap that supervisors (already on 4-crew, 12-hour schedules) did not line up with. Absenteeism and short staffing were so high the plant never saw those lap days in practice. Turnover sat near 25%, and the plant budgeted $1.8 million in overlap labor. Weak weekend RMPC feed (about 112 hours a week) cut mid-week furnace productivity by at least 1% lead loss (about 30 tons/week). Crew instability pointed to an estimated productivity loss of at least 2.25% for Furnace and Refining.

What we did

  • Analyzed RMPC, Furnace, Refining, and support schedules against the weekend and mid-week workload
  • Surveyed 12 salaried and 149 hourly employees and kept the project in front of Teamsters Local 120
  • Designed 4-crew schedules for 24/7 positions, aligning Furnace and Refining to 4 days on and 4 days off with supervisors
  • Moved the majority of RMPC to a 10-hour, 7-week rotation and negotiated 12-hour schedule language with the union

The results

  • 3 to 1 ratification by Teamsters Local 120 and the Company of the new labor agreement (with the new schedules) for 12-hour, 24/7 positions, effective January 10, 2022
  • 80 additional days off per year versus a traditional 8-hour schedule, and 26 weekends off per year
  • ~10% more pay for 12-hour employees (about $6,000 a year before taxes) from overtime rules, plus a $1.00/hour raise on ratification and a $0.80 night differential
  • Potential savings: about $180,000 from reduced absenteeism, a conservative $348,000 if turnover is cut in half, and recovery of a portion of the $1.8 million overlap-labor budget
We are already seeing the benefits of our schedule change which has substantially improved our recruitment efforts as well as our employee retention.

Tim Kerntz, Director of Human Resources, Gopher Resource

Struggling to hire and keep operators? Get a 30-minute workforce diagnostic.

bottom of page