AUBURN -- 150 members of the International Chemical Workers Union Council walked off the job at the TRW Automotive (TRW) plant in Auburn at midnight Monday night.
On Tuesday morning, many of the workers braved the heavy rain as they stood in front of the plant with signs accusing TRW of corporate greed.
TRW is international in scope with operations in 26 countries and over 60,000 employees. Last year, TRW reported sales of $16.2 billion. But according to its latest quarterly report, TRW's profit margins have declined. The plant in Auburn makes remote locks and tire pressure censors for the automotive industry.
Union president Gregory Large told CNY Central’s Jim Kenyon that the company wanted to change shifts. The new shifts would require employees to work either four 10-hour days or three 12-hour days on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
In addition, Large says the company wanted to make other concessions which would allow TRW to hire what he calls a "flexible workforce." Under such an agreement, Large says TRW would be allowed to hire temporary, non-union, employees that would make up 20% of the plant’s workforce.
Large says that what angers many of the employees is an agreement they made 3 years ago. He says the union agreed to a pay cut of $0.93 an hour, in addition to losing vacation days, in hopes that things would be better this time around.
TRW deferred comment to their corporate headquarters in Livonia, Michigan.
Spokesman John Wilkerson said "We are supposed to resume negotiations tomorrow in hopes of reaching a tentative agreement. We don't normally discuss issues during on-going negotiations."
Negotiations are expected to resume Wednesday morning at 10:00 am.
