BY EDWIN FRUIT
UNIONTOWN, Pennsylvania -Some 350 members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) who work at Sensus Technology went on strike on March 2.

According to the Uniontown Herald-Standard, Calvin Croftcheck, president of USWA Local 13836, said that the company claimed it could not come to the bargaining table any sooner than 10 weeks from now.

At the picket line workers told the Militant that the main issues were wages, pensions, and "more respect" by management. Sensus has offered an 11.9 percent wage increase over a five- year period. Pickets said this was an insult compared to the profits the company was making. One of the women strikers said that some 75 percent of the workforce was composed of women and that the last strike had lasted seven weeks in 1979. Croftcheck told the Herald-Standard that he had contacted the Teamsters and the United Mine Workers of America "who have told us they will stand shoulder to shoulder with us." Pickets also reported that United Parcel Service and other Teamster organized truckers were refusing to make deliveries.

Edwin Fruit is a member of International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 1976 in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania.  
 
 
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