Talks remain stalled between an Ingersoll defence industry supplier and 200-plus workers who walked off the job more than a week ago, union officials said Wednesday.
The unionized workers at IMT Defence – which makes projectiles and vehicle systems – voted overwhelmingly to hit the picket line on June 3 in a strike aimed at changing the company’s two-tier pay structure. Wednesday marked Day 10, and no talks are scheduled between the two sides.
“We’re willing to talk whenever they are,” said Jay McDonnell, a 13-year IMT employee and head of the 208-worker United Steelworkers Local 2918 union. “Whenever the company is ready to talk, we’re willing to go to the table, but we’re just waiting on them to contact us.”
McDonnell said “everything is still the same” since the strike began. But union members whose picket line blocks parking lot entrances allowed a busload of replacement workers onto company property on Wednesday, a concession the union leader said was made as a sign of good faith.
The workers at IMT are fighting against the company’s two-tier system to secure wage parity for new hires.
In a statement to The Free Press on Wednesday, the company said it made “an extremely fair offer featuring a 19.5 per cent raise to most employees.”
The company previously said it offered a $2,500 signing bonus to workers.
“We have also offered to continue paying workers at their current compensation levels while we work out a new deal with the union, but that offer was also refused,” the company said.
“We are ready and waiting to have productive discussions with the union as soon as possible.”
McDonnell said the company’s proposal for a 19.5 per cent raise is over four years, the $2,500 bonus “wasn’t for all members,” and the statement didn’t mention a four-year wage freeze for 38 most senior workers.
McDonnell said the union won’t budge off its demand for an end to two-tier wages in the plant.
The last time workers walked off the job at IMT was in 2005, and the strike lasted 13 weeks. McDonnell said morale remains high on the picket line, and a lot of union members “have been planning for the worst, hoping for the best.”
He added: “I think a lot of our members are prepared for this and are prepared to hang in here as long as we have to.”
By Brian Williams, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
