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Vol. 74/No. 48      December 20, 2010

 
Steelworkers in Illinois
fight Honeywell lockout
 
BY BETSY FARLEY  
METROPOLIS, Illinois—“They brought in armed guards who told us we had 30 minutes to get our stuff and get out,” said Todd Evans, a six-year operator locked out by Honeywell at the uranium processing plant here. The 230 locked-out workers process uranium hexafluoride, a stage in the process of enriching uranium for nuclear power and weapons production.

Members of United Steelworkers Local 7-669 voted down a union-busting contract proposal last June and offered to continue working under the current contract. But Honeywell refused the offer, demanding the elimination of seniority and retiree medical benefits, along with pension cuts and a wage reduction of 10 percent over three years.

“The company was well prepared. They had 188 scabs in the plant for 30 days shadowing us try to learn our jobs,” Evans said. “But safety has always been our first concern, and there’s no way anyone can learn to operate this plant safely in that amount of time.”

Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) is chemically toxic and radioactive. The Metropolis facility is the only one in North America that converts uranium ore to UF6 without shipping an intermediary product to another location. On September 5, one day after the “replacement” workers started up core production at the facility, a hydrogen explosion rocked the plant. While company officials denied it, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later confirmed there was indeed a hydrogen blast.

The Metropolis facility was previously shut down after a release of UF6 gas in December 2003 hospitalized four and led to evacuations of dozens of local residents.

Directly in front of the Honeywell plant the union has erected a field of crosses, 42 in memory of their members who have died from cancer and 27 smaller crosses to represent workers who have cancer but are surviving.

The scabs are employed by the Shaw Group. In 2009 a subsidiary of this outfit was forced to pay $6.2 million in government fines for forcing its workers not to report safety violations at nuclear facilities in Alabama and Tennessee, according to the Huffington Post.

“It’s ironic that Honeywell CEO David Cote was named to sit on President Obama’s fiscal responsibility commission while we’re fighting for our lives and our community against his union-busting here,” Evans remarked.

The locked-out workers maintain 24-hour picket lines at the plant gates, even though an injunction has limited the number of workers who can be on the line at any one time. They have two solid, well-heated picket houses donated by local auto dealerships.

“The solidarity and support has been amazing,” said Marcalene Holt, a 15-year operator in the plant. Signs supporting the workers can be seen in front of many houses and small businesses in this town of 6,500. “We’re fighting not just for ourselves, but for everyone,” explained Mark Moore.

Hundreds of workers from Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee turned out for a march and rally in August to support the locked-out workers. In September a delegation of workers from a sister USW local in Canada spent four days on the picket line in Metropolis.

“Other workers have been locked out in this area,” Holt said. “We’re the first ones to stand up, that’s why we’re doing this, and we’re not going to give up.”

Contributions are welcome. Make checks payable to USW Local 7-669, PO Box 601, Metropolis, IL 62960. E-mail: admin@usw7-669.com

John Hawkins contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
On the Picket Line  
 
 
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