DERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Honks and waves from drivers passing by show the widespread solidarity with striking workers picketing at the Pace Industries manufacturing plant here. Over 200 workers at the plant, members of Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 1357, walked out Aug. 7. Largely machine operators, they make die-cast aluminum parts for the automotive, defense and other industries.
The key issues in the strike are higher wages, affordable health insurance and other attacks by the company. “Our current contract expired in May 2024 and was extended several times to July 2025,” Ken Huffman, Local 1357 auditor and a machine operator at the plant, told the Militant. “All the company was doing was shuffling numbers between bonuses, health insurance and wages,” but adding nothing to the value of the contract. “We voted down their last offer 160-3 and went on strike.”
Local 1357 President Duke Reed told the media health plan premiums were “due to rise between 11% and 17%, but the company would cover only about 3% of that hike.” The jacked-up health plan costs and small wage increase would put workers at a “net loss of income,” he said.
The bosses “offered us a bonus, but what’s that? We need raises, not a one-time payment,” striker Patty Ray said. “Before we could strike, we had to do a five-day ‘cooling-off’ period. During those days we took longer breaks and slowed our work down.”
“There used to be 340 of us in the plant, but the company has been laying off workers. They laid off 40 last summer,” Huffman said. “They had us working seven days a week.” Then the company called laid-off workers asking them to come back and cross the picket line, but it didn’t work.
“Union bricklayers from Dayton, Ohio, were doing work in the building, but they left as soon as the strike began,” he said. Members of the United Electrical Workers and United Steelworkers have brought donations.
Pickets are up 24/7, and are extra lively at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., when management and replacement workers go in and out. Show your support! Join the picket line at 1004 Industrial Blvd.