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IUE-CWA Members In Connecticut Strike Aerospace Firm
Striking workers at SPX Corp.’s Fenn Manufacturing in Newington, Conn., members of IUE-CWA Local 81266, are in a tough fight with the aerospace components maker.
Picket lines went up July 9, with 117 union members determined to beat the company’s campaign to break the union.
“Basically, SPX wants to throw out our contract,” local President Ray Kotulski said. “They want to subcontract work, bypass seniority, eliminate premium pay and make big cuts in retiree health care.”
IUE-CWA leaders have tried to build a working partnership with SPX. But company officials rebuffed them, saying profit was the bottom line and that SPX isn’t “a warm and fuzzy corporation,” Kotulski said.
He said the company has engaged in bad-faith bargaining by hiring a security force to intimidate workers, fencing off property early in the bargaining process and refusing the local’s requests for information.
Not in dispute is the company’s profitability, which last year was 30 percent higher than projected. The SPX Fenn facility also has a record backlog of three years’ work, Kotulski said.
Several hundred supporters braved 100-degree heat to join the strikers at an August rally on the picket line. They included IUE-CWA President Ed Fire, Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olson and Bill Curry, the Democratic candidate for governor, among other politicians.
Scores of union supporters were also on hand, including members of CWA Local 1298 in Hamden, Conn., and IUE-CWA Local 81201in Lynn, Mass.
The SPX workers, who produce aerospace parts for defense helicopters, are a critical part of the defense effort. The plant has several sole-source contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, which means no other facilities produce the helicopter parts, Kotulski said.
During the strike, the plant is operating with a skeletal crew, with 25 temporary workers hired through a security firm.
Picket lines went up July 9, with 117 union members determined to beat the company’s campaign to break the union.
“Basically, SPX wants to throw out our contract,” local President Ray Kotulski said. “They want to subcontract work, bypass seniority, eliminate premium pay and make big cuts in retiree health care.”
IUE-CWA leaders have tried to build a working partnership with SPX. But company officials rebuffed them, saying profit was the bottom line and that SPX isn’t “a warm and fuzzy corporation,” Kotulski said.
He said the company has engaged in bad-faith bargaining by hiring a security force to intimidate workers, fencing off property early in the bargaining process and refusing the local’s requests for information.
Not in dispute is the company’s profitability, which last year was 30 percent higher than projected. The SPX Fenn facility also has a record backlog of three years’ work, Kotulski said.
Several hundred supporters braved 100-degree heat to join the strikers at an August rally on the picket line. They included IUE-CWA President Ed Fire, Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olson and Bill Curry, the Democratic candidate for governor, among other politicians.
Scores of union supporters were also on hand, including members of CWA Local 1298 in Hamden, Conn., and IUE-CWA Local 81201in Lynn, Mass.
The SPX workers, who produce aerospace parts for defense helicopters, are a critical part of the defense effort. The plant has several sole-source contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, which means no other facilities produce the helicopter parts, Kotulski said.
During the strike, the plant is operating with a skeletal crew, with 25 temporary workers hired through a security firm.