‘Honeywell is determined to get the union out,’ say locked-out workers

BY JOHN HAWKINS

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — “Honeywell is determined to get the union out of here. They want to go back to the way things were before the union was founded” decades ago, said Willis Northcutt as he helped staff the picket line here July 22.

“It’s not that the company is not making money. They’re just not making enough to meet their expectations,” added Northcutt, a fabricator and high temperature furnace operator for 33 years.

Pickets are standing firm at every entrance to Honeywell International’s aircraft brake plant here, more than two months after the company locked out 317 members of United Auto Workers Local 9, along with about 40 members of UAW Local 1508 in Green Island, New York.

Members of Local 9 voted 270 to 30 to reject Honeywell’s “last, best, and final offer,” which drastically increases health care costs, tears up work schedules and allows the company to ignore job classifications.

“It’s not just that they want to raise our weekly premium payments and increase the deductible to $8,000 — they refused to guarantee that there will be any health coverage whatsoever in the future,” Local 9 Recording Secretary Bryan Rodgers told the Militant.

“We are offering the same health care that is available to every other Honeywell employee in the U.S.,” said Honeywell Aerospace spokesperson Scott Sayres in a phone interview. “For the last five years, the union has been insulated from the incremental health care increases all Honeywell employees — and most Americans — have faced,” he elaborated by email.

“What the company basically wants is a list of work rules, not a contract,” Rodgers said. “They want to take away just about everything — paid absences, all the letters of understanding from past contracts.” The last negotiation session was held June 9.

“The company thought the new guys would vote yes, but they didn’t,” said Tim Smothermon, 33, on the picket line. He just started work at Honeywell Dec. 7. “They’re trying to starve people out. That’s why they’ve been blocking our unemployment benefits.”

Honeywell is attempting to continue production with supervisors and about 200 replacement workers provided by strikebreaking outfit Strom Engineering.

“They might be running the machines but they’re not getting any production out the door,” said Fred Reihl, 62, who retired in March after 22 years with the company.

“We’re planning a rally in the next six weeks,” Rodgers said. The New York local held a successful event in Green Island June 15, and “we want to do the same thing here. We’ll be posting the details soon on the local’s website.”

Contributions to aid the locked-out workers can be sent to UAW Region 2B, earmarked “UAW Local 9 lockout support.”

Related articles:
On the Picket Line

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