More than a year has passed since workers at the Honeywell uranium conversion plant in Metropolis, Illinois were locked out of their jobs. The locked out workers – who are members of United Steel Workers local 7-669 – were not seeking higher pay or better benefits; they wanted simply to keep what they had won in previous contracts.
The conglomerate mega-corporation operating the plant, Honeywell International, had other ideas. After the contract expired, they forced the union workers off the job, demanding givebacks on pensions, seniority, work rules, and retiree health care.
These demands for worker concessions were not the result of bad economic times. Honeywell, like most other corporations, is still posting enormous profits. In fact, just one month after the Metropolis workers were locked out, Honeywell reported a 4% increase in quarterly profits over the year before.
Despite its rising profits, Honeywell has decided to scrape more money off the back of its workers, perhaps so it can pay the grotesque and rising $9.74 million salary of its CEO David Cote. In the Honeywell lockout case, we see a continuation of the disturbing company practices most notably put on display in the Continue reading Dangerous Honeywell Uranium Plant Still Operating with Untrained Scabs
