Talks Fail Between USW, Honeywell in US Uranium Lockout

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4066-Talks-Fail-Between-USW-Honeywell-in-US-Uranium-Lockout

Negotiations between the United Steelworkers Local 7-699 and Honeywell Inc. failed 11-12 October to resolve a company-imposed lockout on 228 union members at a uranium conversion plant in the US. The failure to resolve the 17-week lockout in Metropolis, Illinois, means scab workers will continue to mix dangerous chemicals in a process that mills yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), and then is sold to nuclear enrichment facilities.

The talks last week were the third set of bi-lateral negotiations since the lockout began on 28 June. Progress was made on the first day on one of the major issues – health coverage and retiree medical insurance – but talks broke down on 12 October over retirement benefits and Honeywell’s demand to create a two-tier pension scheme. Talks could re-start within the next few weeks.

Other issues separating USW and Honeywell are the transnational’s insistence on gaining broad contracting-out rights, a weakening of workers’ seniority rights, and hours of work. The company is offering a 3% wage increase, but its other demands are so detrimental to workers’ interests that the union has countered with a wage freeze and continuance of the current entitlement terms.


Metropolis, the fictional home of Superman, is now a US nuclear safety risk

Honeywell, together with subcontracting agent the Shaw Group, has used US political leverage to gain certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), allowing the use of 200 replacement workers to perform dangerous tasks inside the nuclear supply chain.

FULL story at link.