Union members talk about effects of lockout (USW at Kongsberg Automotive)

[Omaha Steve]

http://timesbulletin.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=146549&TM=5117.188

BY ED GEBERT

Times Bulletin News Writer

[e-mail]

The picket line outside Kongsberg Automotive is about the only contact that locked out steelworkers have with their jobs these days. The 328 members of United Steelworkers Local 1-524 were locked out beginning with third shift work on April 2. Since that time, employees who have spent years on the job at Teleflex, and now Kongsberg, have found themselves facing an uncertain future.

"Right now it's just begun. We won't get a check this week. Our insurance stops in two weeks. That's when it's going to hurt everybody. I've worked here 37 years, and they do this to us, exclaimed Cheryl Baker. "It's not like we're making a lot of money. I started out here at $2.50 an hour and I worked all those years and get what, $14?"

Della Dangler, who has almost 40 years in at the plant, noted, "It's okay right now, but as it goes longer and longer... I don't know. We're prepared financially for probably a couple of months."


A United Steel Workers Union member walks the picket line with a sign declaring what happened to her.


But not everyone has a financial cushion to work with. Some are now dependent on spouses on fixed incomes. For some families, there isn't enough savings to keep everything as is for long. Deb Clay admitted, "It's starting to hit a little bit. We're running out of money now. Some of our bills will be getting behind and stuff."

Barb Owens agreed,"It's not good. Not good at all. People around here are helping and some of the unions are sending money to us. But otherwise we're just going on what we have."

There are organizations reaching out to the suddenly unemployed workers. For example, Trinity Friends Church is opening their food pantry to the locked out workers and their families this morning.


FULL story at link.