ProgressOhio

In January of this year, a Norwegian company bought an auto parts factory in Van Wert, now called Kongsberg Automotive. Now, the company is doing its best to break the union there, United Steel Workers Local 1-524. The wages provided by these union jobs in the factory aren’t sky high – most people make $14.50 to $17.50 per hour for the skilled work they do. But these wages have helped to keep the local community’s economy afloat, and now Kongsberg Automotive is trying to take that away, proposing to pay many workers a poverty wage of only $9 an hour. To make matters worse, the Van Wert Times Bulletin reports that “The company has already announced their intention to move 200 of the 320 [jobs] to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.”

In the meantime, after a hostile and uncompromising period of “bargaining,” the company locked workers out of the factory with only two days’ notice. This left 330 men and women laid off in tough economic times. Van Wert County is already suffering above-average unemployment for the state. At a rally last Saturday organized by USW Local 1-524, local union President Aaron Collins said, “the question is, how much longer can our country take this outpouring of jobs to Mexico and China before the bottom falls out?”

The callousness of Kongsberg’s treatment of its workers, and its shameless plan to outsource most of the jobs to a Mexican border town, is symptomatic of many of the problems the American economy is facing today. Our nation is struggling, and we as a people have to make a strong, collective effort to get it back on track. Kongsberg Automotive workers are waging such a fight today, but they’re up against a powerful transnational corporation with no particular interest in seeing their community or their country through these hard times. However, they hope that over the course of the coming days and weeks, they may be able to persuade Kongsberg’s management to come back to the table with them.

The rally and march on Saturday was a strong display of solidarity – over 400 people attended, and many unions presented checks to the locked out union to help them support their families while they are laid off. Individuals supported the local by buying “I Support the Locked Out Employees of Kongsberg” t-shirts and yard signs. Joe Rugola, President of the Ohio AFL-CIO pledged that the Ohio AFL-CIO and his home union, OAPSE, would support USW Local 1-524 members. The struggle continues, in Van Wert and around the country where workers are less important than corporations and thriving communities are the exception, not the rule.

You can watch an awesome two-minute video of highlights of the march and rally here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voNrMCxrV4g.

This has been cross-posted from Ohio Labor '08 Blog.