As company looks for new hires, strikers say it’s a ‘slap in the face’

 

ELKHART, Ind.-- A strike continues between Elkhart Products Corporation and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) Local 2018.

As of Thursday, 108 Elkhart Products employees are still on strike.

Those strikers arrived to a surprise Thursday a huge “now hiring” sign on the building of the company they are striking against.

“You show up to a place that you’ve been coming to for 15 years, and find out that they’re trying to replace you,” said Thomas King, a TIG welder for Elkhart Products.

King is an organizer for the strike, which started, he said, after his employers tried to give their workers a pay cut, citing the increased cost of insurance.

“This whole experience with them has been a slap in the face,” King said.

After about three weeks of striking, he said, the company is now looking to hire new workers, offering a $1,000 sign-on bonus.

“From what I saw, the wages were exactly the same wage as what he had before we went out for negotiations,” King said.

To strikers—including Machinist Justin Harness—seeing their employer offer extra benefits to new hires instead of meeting their demands, they say, feels unfair.

“We’ve tried to negotiate in good faith with them, but I do not feel they’ve been negotiating in good faith with us,” Harness said. “You would think that the company would see that and keep the people that they know are here every day to work for them, but it’s like they’re blind to it. It’s kind of sad.”

And to King, it feels like a betrayal.

“These people have been here, they’ve bled for them,” he said. “A lot of us have gotten hurt over the years and been through workman’s comp for them. And they’re going to take us and treat us like this after all this time?”

The union another proposal today, so now the ball is in Elkhart Product’s court.

IAMAW Local 2018 is holding a fish fry Oct. 15 to raise funds for the strike. That will take place 12-7 p.m. at the Legion in Osceola.