Kongsberg officials reject union’s counteroffer

VAN WERT - Before Kongsberg Automotive locked its union employees out earlier this month, it had a reputation as a good place to work for the most part, employees say, despite the daily aches and pains associated with automotive labor.

When Renee Hartman started working there 31 years ago, when it was Teleflex, she said it was like a close-knit family.

The workers, she said, could go up front and talk with the management. The atmosphere was laid back, she said, very casual. And, they all still got the job done, meeting daily quotas.

She and others said that has changed. Now, with the company and its union workers in the United Steelworkers Local 1-524 reaching a stalemate in negotiations today, they said, things will only get worse.

Union officials said Thursday evening they never had enough time to vote before the company's 10 a.m. deadline today. Even if they had enough time to locate the more than 300 striking members at their homes and notify them via mail of a vote in two days, and met to vote, they would have been voting for the same contract they recently rejected with an overwhelming majority. Company officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

"We asked them for more time on the date and they wouldn't even move it to Monday or Tuesday," said union vice president Judy Grubb, of Van Wert.

Grubb said the company's plans to move 200 of the plant's 330 jobs to Mexico this year and its intentions to cut wages more than $5 per hour are part of an effort to remove the union.

"Our legal experts are saying it doesn't look good," Grubb said. "They want to break the union, get rid of it, so they can do what they want."

Aaron Collins, union president, said the company claims it needs to lower wages because it can no longer offer competitive prices.

If the company does not provide these documents to support that claim by 10 a.m. today, Collins said, the union will file a complaint of unfair labor practice.

"People are going to lose their homes over this," Grubb said. "In our community, it's going to hurt businesses. Even if we take the cuts, we won't be able to go to Wal-Mart; we won't be able to go shopping or out to eat."

Meanwhile, unemployment benefits were stalled, Grubb said.

"The company stalled our unemployment by not responding to the unemployment office," she said. "If they had, we would be getting it by now. Hopefully, we should start seeing payments (today). ... We have people needing money to make house payments. Most of us have families."

Currently, workers continue to picket at several locations while the community offers support with donations. While many union members hope to ride this out for the best, the plant continues to operate with temporary workers and non-union employees, such as supervisors.

"All those company people, the supervisors, managers and temporary workers, who are there working to death right now, working 80 to 90 hours a week need to quit," he said. "If our jobs are gone, their jobs are gone, too. Why are they helping them do this? The company doesn't care about them either. This is going to hurt the whole community. They live here, too."