Workers took a $2-an-hour pay cut in 1988 and three years ago they struck because the company threatened to freeze wages.

They went back to work for about what they're being offered now. Workers on the picket line told the Militant they want the $2 back and that pennies just don't cut it.

Some 160 of the striking workers make $8.35 an hour. The company is offering a raise of 30 cents the first year, 35 cents the second, and 35 cents the third--barely a $1 increase over three years--and proposes to add $20 to the $70 monthly premiums workers pay for health insurance for a family.

"I wasn't happy with the proposal to increase the medical insurance and the company being able to change providers after one year and being able to increase the insurance after one year," said Modess Echeazu, an assembler tester and member of IAM Local 1345 who has worked in the plant more than 10 years.

"It is an outrage that the company is proposing that if workers go out on sick leave for 26 weeks and then come back to work the company won't pay them benefits if they get sick and have to go out again before three months. I have a sister and a brother with cancer and a heart condition."

The company is refusing to upgrade class-ifications. The union is demanding that molding machine operators be paid machine operator wages of $10.55 an hour, instead of assembly pay of $8.35 an hour.

The contract proposal also states that if workers are summoned to court as a witness or a petitioner, they will not be charged an attendance point, but if they are the defendant the absence will count against their record.

Into the third week of the strike, the unionists remain confident and determined to stay out for as long as it takes.

"My concern is the health and safety of the people who use these medical devices," said Stephanie Hardin. She has worked in the plant for two years and works on the oxygen regulator assembly line in the Patient Care Department.

"This is no ordinary strike. It affects peoples lives. It's a life-and-death issue. One of the reasons I voted no is that the department I work in has been working mandatory overtime since the first of the year: 10–12 hours, six days a week."

The plant makes hospital and health-care equipment and supplies such as oxygen regulators, calibration analyzers, automatic ventilators, and backboards for ambulances. Strikers said plant managers, company personnel, and their relatives are working in the plant trying to crank out some products, in violation of regulations that require trained and certified employees.

Angy Folkes is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1345 on strike against Allied Healthcare Products. Alyson Kennedy is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in St. Louis.  
 
 
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