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Helena Lab Workers Standing Strong
There's a real David and Goliath story going on in Beaumont, Tex., where members of CWA Local 6139 are in a tough fight at Helena Laboratories.
Some 250 workers have been on strike since Dec. 2, fighting for a fair contract against a family-owned company that has seven multinational subsidiaries, additional domestic operations and major government contracts, but refuses to pay workers a fair wage, reports District 6 Vice President Ben Turn.
Picket lines are strong, despite the company's efforts to hire temporary replacements and a strike that is going into an eighth week. The message from the Helena workers: we deserve health insurance and a living wage.
Company CEO and President Tipton L. Golias has told union negotiators and a federal mediator that providing workers with a decent pay raise would hurt the business, despite the company's hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales and its contracts with Veterans' Hospitals nationwide. The company's latest offer would give workers, many of whom already qualify for food stamps, a 14-cent hourly wage increase.
Nearly two-thirds of the workers don't have health insurance, because they can't afford the premium costs on their average hourly wage of $8.35. Nearly 20 percent of the unit earns less than $7 an hour. That means that workers, who manufacture state-of-the-art medical and blood screening equipment, can't benefit from the diagnostic kits and other equipment that they produce, because their families have no medical coverage.
Helena has subsidiaries in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and Canada, and CWA is working with unions in those countries to focus greater attention on Helena's unfair treatment of U.S. workers. The union and local members also are building support throughout the community and are investigating the company's financial and business dealings.
Some 250 workers have been on strike since Dec. 2, fighting for a fair contract against a family-owned company that has seven multinational subsidiaries, additional domestic operations and major government contracts, but refuses to pay workers a fair wage, reports District 6 Vice President Ben Turn.
Picket lines are strong, despite the company's efforts to hire temporary replacements and a strike that is going into an eighth week. The message from the Helena workers: we deserve health insurance and a living wage.
Company CEO and President Tipton L. Golias has told union negotiators and a federal mediator that providing workers with a decent pay raise would hurt the business, despite the company's hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales and its contracts with Veterans' Hospitals nationwide. The company's latest offer would give workers, many of whom already qualify for food stamps, a 14-cent hourly wage increase.
Nearly two-thirds of the workers don't have health insurance, because they can't afford the premium costs on their average hourly wage of $8.35. Nearly 20 percent of the unit earns less than $7 an hour. That means that workers, who manufacture state-of-the-art medical and blood screening equipment, can't benefit from the diagnostic kits and other equipment that they produce, because their families have no medical coverage.
Helena has subsidiaries in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and Canada, and CWA is working with unions in those countries to focus greater attention on Helena's unfair treatment of U.S. workers. The union and local members also are building support throughout the community and are investigating the company's financial and business dealings.