Metropolis, Il. is home to the Honeywell-owned Metropolis Works Plant--the only remaining uranium conversion plant in the U.S... Metropolis uranium workers... were locked out by management in the middle of contract negotiations... Since the lockout began, the union has taken to the picket lines around the clock--and Honeywell has imported 200 scabs from Louisiana.
The main point of contention is Honeywell's demand that employees accept big increases in their health-care costs and reductions in pensions. Workers...aren't seeking pay increases, but want to maintain pensions and retiree health care benefits. The union has even offered to accept pay reductions in both bonuses and overtime. The company, however, has refused to budge and repeatedly walked out of negotiations. HEALTH CARE is central because of the highly dangerous nature of the work...
In fact, Honeywell may have provoked the lockout in hopes of seeing uranium prices rise... Stock prices for uranium mining operators have shot up 25 percent in the past few weeks, and the price for converted uranium increased 10 percent in just the past month... In order to increase those profits ever so slightly, the company is willing to put the health and wellbeing of its Metropolis employees at risk. In the meantime, Honeywell is putting Metropolis and the surrounding area at risk by having inexperienced or long-retired "replacement workers" process uranium.
AS THE lockout has continued, there has been an outpouring of solidarity and support... On August 10, hundreds of workers and supporters marched through Metropolis to protest the lockout... The Southern Illinoisan reported marchers "were met with cheers from the public," and ABC-affiliate WSIL-TV 3 described downtown Metropolis as "a sea of United Steel Workers union supporters." People don't seem to be buying Honeywell's lies. Instead, they are rallying to the workers' cause. Unemployment in surrounding Massac County stood at 10.9 percent as of July. If these decent-paying jobs are gutted, things will only get worse in the area. So the workers at the Metropolis plant are holding the line for working people in the region and beyond.
http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/17/holding-the-line-at-honeywell
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