Visteon's Removal of Equipment Triggers Strike at IUE-CWA Plant in Indiana

BEDFORD, Ind., June 2 -- More than 1,000 members of IUE-CWA Local 907 are on strike after Visteon began removing equipment from the plant minutes after the workers' collective bargaining agreement expired at 12:01 a.m. May 30, 2004.

After Local 907 members rejected Visteon's "last and final" offer May 28, the local's negotiating committee informed the company that IUE-CWA was prepared to continue negotiations. The contract initially was set to expire May 14, but both sides agreed to an extension. When Visteon refused to extend the contract any further, local union officials said members would work without a contract while talks resumed.

Those plans changed, however, when Visteon loaded up FDM, or fuel delivery module, machinery on trucks and moved them out of the plant shortly after the midnight contract expiration.

"Visteon provoked our members into striking," said IUE-CWA Automotive Conference Board Chairman Jim Clark, who along with Local 907 President Earl Wilson, headed the union's negotiating team. "People cannot sit by and watch their jobs -- their livelihoods -- leaving and do nothing."

Job security was a major issue in the negotiations. Visteon had walked away from the table in January, saying the company needed to rework its business plan after 2003 earnings fell below analysts' expectations. When talks picked up in May, the company announced plans to cut 600 jobs over the next 12 to 18 months by transferring the FDM work, and to seek huge cuts in labor costs from those remaining.

"Visteon vastly accelerated its timeline on moving the FDM equipment from what was said at the bargaining table," said Clark. "You have to wonder whether this was really the plan all along."

Health care cost shifting for current workers and retirees was another critical issue. Visteon wanted workers to pay a higher percentage of premium costs and to significantly raise co-pays for services.

Clark said the union remains committed to returning Local 907 members to work and to resuming negotiations.

"Our members are hard-working members of this community who want to keep secure jobs with good wages and benefits in Bedford," said Clark. "We all hope for a quick and peaceful end to this dispute."