Honeywell Lockout Continues in Indiana, Albany

June 24, 2016 
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel

Green Island, NY – More than 100 people rallied June 15 to support the 42 United Auto Workers members locked out of the Honeywell Aerospace plant near Albany since May 9.

The protest came a week after negotiations between the company and the union broke off after management continued to insist on switching workers to a high-deductible health-insurance plan, saying that’s what its other employees get. “Honeywell doesn’t want to negotiate at all,” Rob Williams, treasurer of UAW Local 9 in South Bend, Indiana—where another 317 workers are locked out—told the South Bend Tribune. The company says it “will resume negotiations whenever the union is ready to do so,” but that the contract workers rejected before the lockout is its “last, best, and final offer.” Honeywell has brought in temporary workers to build airplane brake linings at the Green Island plant, but “the cheap labor doesn't know how to do what we do best,” UAW Local 1508 member Susan Brennan told the crowd. Read more