February 22, 2000
Workers picket at Tiffin Casting Products
By Jefferson Wolfe
Staff Writer
Workers at Tiffin Casting Products Inc. started picketing Monday, about three weeks after being locked out when their contract expired.
Members of the United Auto Workers Local 1644 were locked out of the metal casting plant at 745 S. CR 13, after their contract expired Jan. 31.
"At 11:30 p.m. we came out and they put a chain on the gate," union member Howard Billow said.
Union officials say negotiations were ongoing since July. The union had volunteered to continue working under the old contract.
No negotiations have been scheduled, union members say.
"We had a union meeting last night and they didn't say anything about formal negotiations," Billow said. "They just don't want to negotiate."
"We are not on strike," said James E. McClure, another union member who was picketing Monday. "We do want to work."
The picketing will continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week, union members said.
Some of the issues in the strike include overtime compensation, the loss of some vacation and holidays and insurance benefits.
Union members have said the company had a $15 co-pay plan but is proposing a system that has a $500 deductible for a single person and a $1,000 deductible for two-parties and families.
Billow said none of the union members has received unemployment benefits yet. There is a hearing scheduled for Monday in which the state is to decide if the company has to pay unemployment benefits, he said
A few union members have had to get other jobs in order to support their families, Billow said.