Kongsberg union, management to discuss return to work

VAN WERT - Steelworkers union Local 524 members will meet with representatives of Kongsberg Automotive on Thursday to discuss going back to work, on the company's terms, until the plant is shut down this summer.

Local Vice President Judy Grubb said Monday that the union and company had been talking about the possibility of filling the 60 jobs still at the plant until it is shut down, as the company plans, this summer.

She said the company has sent letters for employees to sign if they want to return to work.

Grubb said the union members met Friday to talk about the issues surrounding a possible return to work, but she is not optimistic.

If you went back "you'd feel like the laughingstock of Van Wert County," she said.

More than 300 people worked at the plant in April when the company locked out the union members after they rejected a contract calling for drastic pay cuts on any new products.

"You could change a grommet or a seal on something and call it new product," Grubb said.

Two hundred jobs were sent to Mexico shortly after that and replacement workers were brought in to run the shifts in Van Wert.

Locked-out employees have continued to picket outside the company.