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Workers strike at Niles facility
NILES
A somber group of workers sat on both sides of the street near Phillips Manufacturing Co. in Niles, hoping that somehow an agreement can be reached so the strike that started Thursday can end.
The 44 members of United Steelworkers Local 4564-02 left their positions at midday Thursday when workers shut down machines for a scheduled lunch break. The union members had been working without a contract since Aug. 9.
Union members believe they were forced to strike based on the offer the company presented, said Jim Nicholas, unit chairman for the USW at the plant.
“They want to jack the prices up on health care and take money [away from] some people,” he said. “They also want to take away our extended medical leave.”
The final issue is that the company wants to provide significant raises to the skilled workers, but production employees would either take a pay cut, get a minimal raise or no raise depending on the position, Nicholas said.
Striking was not a choice; it was something that had to be done, said Dave Hanshaw, a union member.
“Every time we sit down with them, they want to start talking nickels and dimes. We don’t want to talk nickels and dimes. We want to talk about what’s right and fair,” Nicholas said. “When they bought the place in 1998, they told us if we helped them, then they would take care of us once they got on their feet.”
But union members have made concessions in every contract, he said.
In the first contract, the union members agreed to wage freezes for the first five years and gave up their pensions, said Ken Ellwood, a union member.
The company clearly is busy. The most recent schedule had everyone working 10-hour shifts for six days, he said.
Nicholas said he believes the company will have to take some type of action starting next week, such as bringing in workers from one or more of the company’s facilities in Florida or Nebraska.
“They can’t keep going very long the way they’re going now,” he said.
Attempts to contact Phillips Manufacturing were unsuccessful.
In 2004, Phillips Manufacturing received abatements from both Niles and Trumbull County that provided the company with a 75 percent tax abatement for 10 years on real- and personal-property taxes.
At the time, Phillips Manufacturing told the county it would invest between $2.3 million and $6.85 million at the site. As part of the abatement, the company pledged to hire 10 workers within three years, which would bring its total number of employees to 91.
The Niles facility employs about 60 people, Ellwood said.
The abatement from both Niles and the county became a moot point in 2005 when the state eliminated taxing manufacturing equipment as real and personal property, said Bill Miller, from the Trumbull County Planning Commission.