Haley Industries employees on strike

There are reports that at midnight, some employees of Haley Industries Ltd.in Whitewater Township went on strike. Other employees showed up at work early Tuesday morning to discover the gates locked at the facility on Magnesium Road in Whitewater Township, in response to the strike action by about 388 employees in production and maintenance. They are represented by Local 4820 of the United Steelworkers. Haley Industries manufactures airplane parts for Magellan Aerospace. According to Steelworkers district representative David Lipton, the employees' collective agreement expired on March 15 and talks with a provincial mediator yesterday failed to reach a settlement.

The employees voted 96 per cent in favour of a strike, and as of 12:01 a.m. April 3, were in a legal position to do so, said Local 4820 chief steward Peter Vanderploeg. "It (the strike vote) was last Monday and they (the company) hadn't budged since then. Their final offer pushed us here," Vanderploeg added. "I'm at the table in the negotiating committee. It was a tough decision to make because the offer they gave us was an insult. "Wages is basically what we are after," Vanderploeg noted. "We don't want to be out here (on the picket line), but don't want to be treated like garbage. "We need the community behind us. These people spend a lot of money in the community, and they (Magellan, owner of Haley Industries) are treating us like s--t," Vanderploeg said. "The company accused the Ministry of Labour of being in cahoots with the union," Vanderploeg stressed. There has been no response to calls made to Haley Industries.