Labor dispute in Oxford joins long-running lockout in Lebanon

Oct. 18--Manufacturing workers were picketing last week in Oxford and Lebanon, unable to come to agreements with their employers on wages, pensions and the costs of health insurance premiums.

More than 200 workers at Schneider Electric in Oxford began striking on Oct. 6. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2287 formed a picket line around the entrance to the company's Butler County plant at 5160 College Corner Pike.

The company, which manufactures electrical equipment, was formerly known as Square D.

Schneider Electric was negotiating new labor contracts with IBEW, the International Association of Machinists and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing six bargaining units at facilities nationwide. Union members at four manufacturing facilities ratified a new contract, effective at midnight Oct. 6.

However, two union chapters -- IBEW's Local 2287 in Oxford, and an IAM-organized facility in Peru, Ind. -- did not agree to the new terms.

"They've been sticking together very well. Nobody's crossed the picket line that we know of," said Bill Dietz, international representative for IBEW's fourth district, on Wednesday.

Union members rejected the company's proposal for a new three-year contract that would freeze pensions. Employees also want higher wages. Currently, all incoming employees after 2004 receive starting pay of $12 an hour. Employees hired before 2004 earn more than that, averaging $15 to $16 an hour, but still recently absorbed pay cuts when the company threatened to close operations in Oxford, Dietz said.

Union leaders including Local 2287 president Dennis Helton had returned to the negotiating table Wednesday and Thursday with the French-based company, Dietz said.

"These people are low wage employees to begin with and then to have them out on strike is very hard on them," Dietz said. "It's really tough to have a family and make it on $14 or $15 an hour."

Schneider Electric, which says it employs a total 379 full-time hourly and salary people in Oxford, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The company is committed to do its part to reach a fair contract that reflects the economic realities of business and is confident about reaching an agreement, spokeswoman Elizabeth deCastro previously said at the time the strike started.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, about 174 employees of the auto supply plant Hayashi Telempu North America have picketed around-the-clock on Kingsview Drive since mid-June. That's when contract negotiations failed and they were locked out by the company.

Members walk and protest in shifts, and have set up tents alongside the street.

A two-week contract extension between HTNA and United Auto Workers Local 2387 expired on June 15, said the chapter's Chair Darren Woods. The contract had been in place for four years and the company did not agree to continue working under the same terms until a new labor contract could be reached, Woods said.

HTNA's proposal to the union in June called for wage cuts, more than double increases in insurance premiums and no worker seniority, Woods said.

Most recently at the end of September, union members voted down another contract proposal, Woods said. Local 2387 members are expected to vote on yet another proposal in the week ahead.

"The seniority and overtime issues are back that we wanted. The (cost of) benefits are high, but it's something I think we can live with since it's hitting everybody," Woods said.

He said about 10 people have moved on to other jobs.

"We're still out here 24 hours a day," he said. "Everybody wants to get back to work."

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