UAW to Honeywell: Be prepared to address health care

SOUTH BEND, Indiana — UAW members who are locked out at Honeywell Aerospace facilities in South Bend, Indiana, and Green Island, New York, say it is time for the corporation to get serious about its substandard health care offer.

Locked out UAW members of Local 9 (South Bend) and Local 1508 (Green Island) are expected to go back to the table on Nov. 2 for the fifth round of negotiations since Honeywell locked out its experienced workforce on May 9. The corporation brought in inexperienced scab workers to manufacture precise aircraft parts such as brakes and wheels for our military and commercial aviation.

Honeywell so far has offered a health care proposal that would allow it to change the plan solely at its discretion on a site-by-site basis.

“Honeywell wants to have complete control of our health care. Our members would not have a say in any future changes the company wants to impose,” said Bryan Rodgers, the recording secretary of Local 9, which represents 360 workers in South Bend. “The corporation is good at making public statements that make it appear it is ready to bargain, but it continues to stonewall at the table. We hope this round of negotiations is different.”

“We call upon the company to engage in substantive bargaining over defined objectives, procedures and criteria that will allow employees to determine how much they will have to pay for health care and the level of services they will receive,” said Tim Vogt, president of Local 1508, which represents 39 UAW workers in Green Island.

“It is hard to agree to a health care proposal that the company can change at their whim. We want to go back to our jobs, but we remain committed to reaching a contract that is fair and binding,” Vogt added. “Honeywell’s experienced aerospace workers, our military and the flying public deserve no less.”

For more information on the ongoing situation at Honeywell visit our Honeywell Online Newsroom.