Locked out from June 28th, 2010 to August 2nd, 2011.
February Archive
First meeting of Honeywell Council of Labor Unions. Watch the press conference here!
The first meeting of the Honeywell Council of Labor Unions began yesterday, at 9:00, at our local's union hall in Metropolis, IL. International solidarity is growing and only minutes into the meeting, everyone realized that the story is the same everywhere. Honeywell has waged an all-out attack on all of their workers. Their "Just the Facts" propaganda is being used at nearly all of their facilities. There's still one mystery; Honeywell is telling every one of their locations that they're loosing money, but still they are posting record profits. So where do their profits come from? It's apparent that they lied, once again.....
In attendance were nearly 30 representatives from other Honeywell locations. One Union Leader spoke about how Honeywell Corporate Human Resources Manager, Allan Clark, asked them not to travel to Metropolis because it did not concern them. Another leader told how Honeywell threatened to lock out his members earlier this year. His union is made up of members all over the world, including 50 working in Iraq as contractors. Honeywell told them if they would not accept their offer, they would lock out every employee including those overseas. The company notified the workers in Iraq that they would be kicked out of their company provided barracks and not provided with any transportation back to the U.S. The company threatened to leave them in a war zone.
Peter Dalpe was quick to issue a statement discounting the significance of the event and making assertions that the lockout was caused and continues to be the fault of our union in Metropolis. You're right Peter, it wasn't a big deal. So don't worry about what all was planned.
In another development, Honeywell has put out some new graphs on their website. They are real proud of their doctored statistics. Just like the figures in their "Just the Facts" campaign, the company's numbers don't add up. Honeywell has threatened to fire contractors for reporting work injuries so it's no surprise that the scabs are scared to speak up. They also don't count "contractors" in their lost work day figures. So when everyone is a contractor or "scab", the company doesn't record their lost work time, Shaw does instead. Their production claims are far from truthful, too. This is the same company that has been releasing claim after claim about all the improvements that have been made to the plant. They conveniently failed to mention that the lost production in the months identified last year was due to a regularly scheduled washout of the fluorine plants and a uranium blend (designed by engineers) that would process through Green Salt. Taking all that into consideration, that expensive labor really isn't producing squat. The only thing that the Metropolis plant is manufacturing is lies and we will continue to expose them here.
Honeywell Defies Federal Warrant
Honeywell Defies Federal Warrant
Blocks OSHA Safety Inspection of Metropolis Nuclear Fuels Plant
contact: John Paul Smith, 618-638-7894, >jsmith@usw7-669.com
Mike Wright, 412-370-0105, >mwright@usw.org
February 18, 2011: For Immediate Release
Metropolis, IL-- Defying a federal warrant, Honeywell today blocked an OSHA inspection at the company’s Metropolis, Illinois plant.
On February 8, the company refused to allow a Honeywell worker chosen by the union to accompany the OSHA inspection team. Federal law gives the union the absolute right to designate a “walk-around” representative. OSHA has since obtained a warrant from a federal judge. Today Honeywell refused to honor the warrant.
“The right to accompany an inspector is critical,” said Mike Wright, Director of Health, Safety and Environment for the United Steelworks, which represents Honeywell workers. “An inspector may know a lot about safety, but not much about the plant, and you can’t expect management to point out problems that might get them cited. That’s why Congress wrote union walk-around rights into the law.”
“This plant uses huge amounts of some very hazardous chemicals,” said Darrell Lillie, president of Steelworkers local 7-669. “If they are not handled safely, they are a threat to people in the plant and community residents for miles around. So what’s Honeywell trying to hide from OSHA?”
OSHA will next seek a contempt citation against the company. “Honeywell is a major federal contractor,” said Lillie. “And here they’re defying federal law.
The Honeywell plant converts uranium to a form used to make nuclear fuels. The process uses thousands of gallons of hydrofluoric acid, a highly toxic chemical that could spread for miles if released into the environment. The company locked out the 228 local union members June 28 in an effort to impose drastic cuts in benefits and limit union rights, including union participation in the safety program. Honeywell is currently running the plant with poorly-trained replacement workers. Several incidents have occurred since the lockout began, including a December 22 hydrofluoric acid leak, which triggered the OSHA investigation.
For more information go to www.usw7-669.com.
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Honeywell Workers From Around the World Converge in Metropolis
For Immediate Release: February 17, 2010
For more information, call John Paul Smith 618-638-7894, >jsmith@usw7-669.com
Honeywell Workers From Around the World Converge in Metropolis
Workers meet to form union council, build solidarity
METROPOLIS— Honeywell workers from around the country and around the world will converged on Metropolis to show their support for USW Local 7-669 which has been locked out by Honeywell International, Inc. since June 28, 2010. The group will include representatives from several national and international unions representing Honeywell workers in the United States as well as Michael Petersen, the Chair of the Honeywell European Works Council.
The union representatives will be meeting for two days to develop a strategy to support Local 7-669 and build bargaining power at Honeywell as other local unions to prepare to confront Honeywell at the bargaining table.
The delegates will hold a press conference at 4:00 pm on Monday, February 21 at the Local 7-669 union hall at 3831 N US 45 Rd, Metropolis, IL. The press conference will also be streamed live on the web at www.usw7-669.com.
Following the press conference, the visiting union representatives will hold a meet and greet with the locked out families of USW Local 7-669.
Photograph and Interview Opportunities Available.
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Honeywell gives up!!.......... on making any product!
Honeywell has changed their production strategy. Instead of making up false claims of record production numbers, (while the HF railcars piled up outside) they've decided to just send their raw materials back. Several full HF (hydrofluoric acid) railcars were picked up by the railroad yesterday. Honeywell had ordered too much HF because their orders were based upon what experienced union members were capable of producing. The scabs have been unable to produce anything lately except for an expensive bill. Managers never stopped placing HF orders which had caused a dangerous amount of full HF railcars to accumulate around the plant. Earlier this week, government regulators ordered that Honeywell place armed security near the HF railcars. Larry Smith, maintains that operations are continuing as normal, without issues.
Larry's Letters
It was made clear that our unemployment was extended until June of 2012. We also had an opportunity to read the latest letter from plant manager Larry Smith. You can read it below. We would like to thank Larry for the laughs that your letter provided. Maybe your time writing and sending letters would have been better spent preparing a proposal that we might consider. That is the only way this will come to an end. In the meantime, you can can keep not running and spending all of honeywell's money. We'll keep fighting for what's right.
Honeywell in trouble for having too much deadly HF onsite
How is it that Honeywell found themselves in this situation? It's pretty simple. Honeywell orders HF railcars from other locations. The HF is used in the process to make UF6 (uranium hexafluoride). The railcars are ordered in advance so that the plant does not run out. Here's the problem. Honeywell has continued ordering HF at the rate that the experienced Union workers were able to use it in the process. The scabs have been unable to produce anything, sometimes for days or weeks at a time. The continued downtime had resulted in HF railcars stacking up all around the plant.
Honeywell denies that this is the reason why, but hasn't been able to explain what has caused the surplus or why no UF6 cylinders are shipping from the plant. I guess they think no one will notice. We noticed.......
Union offers to negotiate through the weekend, Company declines
Many of you you may have noticed the company's latest update on their website here. It should come to no one's surprise that it is filled with lies just like most of Peter Dalpe's statements. What the company would not like everyone to know is that the Union Committee offered to continue negotiating through the weekend and next week. Chuck Bengston, the Honeywell's lead negotiator, declined because HE had a vacation planned, not the our negotiator as their website claims. Our negotiator will be unavailable the first two weeks of March, but that is the only time. The company's website also says that Larry Smith needs to be at the plant to oversee the shutdown of the plant. Larry, everyone knows that you couldn't oversee your way out of a paper sack so we know that's a lie. Besides, isn't that what "The Savior", Dean Palmer is for? Oh well, it isn't like you haven't had the whole plant double staffed for that last seven months just to make those mediocre production numbers. Two incompetent managers during the shut-down makes complete sense. There's just one question..... You claim to have used all that down time at the beginning of the lockout to perform all your needed maintenance. Are you serious that you could only run (if that's what you call it) for 6 months before needing to shut down for more maintenance. The shareholders would be proud. Maybe we'll let them know in April at the shareholders meeting. There's only one thing to say about the demands on your website, good luck. Good luck pushing that anti-union crap on this body. We are galvanized and aren't going to give up, Ever!
Honeywell tries to block OSHA inspection! What are they trying to hide?
Today, inspectors from OSHA attempted to enter the Metropolis Honeywell facility to conduct an inspection on suspected safety violations. Our local union recognized our legal right to have a union representative with OSHA during the investigation and the OSHA investigators welcomed his presence. A member of the United Steel Workers Health & Safety department was accompanying OSHA into the plant and was denied access beyond the visitor's parking lot. Honeywell's explanation is that they did not recognize his affiliation with the union and stated the union representative had to be a current locked out union member. OSHA attempted to enter the plant a second time accompanied by a current union employee and member of the Local's Executive Board. This time the investigation team made it all the way the Administration building before a manager denied access to the representative once again, this time without being able to give a valid reason why. Is Honeywell trying to hide something from OSHA? At this time, the OSHA investigating team is in the process of obtaining a court injunction, ordering Honeywell to allow access to a representative of our Union's choosing to accompany the investigators. We will update everyone as this story develops.
Local Engineering firm trying to hire local SCABS.
These "jobs", which Phil Mcintosh described as "temporary", would be doing work inside the plant including laundry, stores, janitors, and general labor so that some of the out-of-town scabs could be sent home. He mentioned that some scabs might get the option to stay their on a full-time basis. (Lie) The great thing is, they are going to pay a whopping $10.00 an hour. The Shaw scabs make over $30.00 an hour doing the same thing. So are the scabs going to get scabed?
The interviews were going to be held at the Paducah Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, but were abruptly canceled after we notified them that our union intended to distribute leaflets outside the Chamber every day that interviews were being conducted there. Phil Mcintosh also sits on the Advisory Board for EntrePaducah, a Chamber of Commerce entity that recruits entreprenuars to our area.
Our message to Phil Mcintosh: Good luck with your scab hiring. Our members and the members of this community will never forget what you are doing.
The message to anyone considering crossing our picket line: Think about what you are doing to the jobs in our area. Is a temporary job making $10.00 an hour really worth it? And if that doesn't change your mind, remember that the company is required by law to provide our union with the names of every scab in the plant, on our demand, and we publish those names on this website. That counter on the bottom of this screen is up to 326,000 hits and you won't be able to keep it a secret.
USW Local 7-669 kicks off petition drive
As some members of our local community may have noticed, today we kicked off our petition drive. The petition asks regulating agencies, as well as State and Local Legislators to initiate investigations into Honeywell's safety record during the lockout and to take legal action to keep our community safe. Members of our Union as well as other Community members will be traveling door-to-door during the next few days. Copies of the petition will also be available at various locations throughout Metropolis and Paducah. If you would like to sign the petition and we have not visited your home, stop by the picket line, where we will be keeping signature pages. We would like to give our sincerest thanks to all who have helped us with the petition. If you would like blank copies to pass around your neighborhood or at your organization, please pick them up at the picket line. Print your copy here.
