Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290134
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
``We've got a bargaining committee that worked very hard for 45 hours,'' said Jery Kirschke, vice president of human relations for Rubatex. ``I think we both won. You saw people go back to work, and that's what we're both striving for.''
Company guards kept the media out as union and Rubatex representatives announced to employees at 9 p.m. that the strike had ended and the dispute would be handled by arbitrators.
Kirschke said evening-shift workers would start immediately. Personnel actions that caused the strike would be reversed until they can be settled by arbitration, in about a month. He did, however, call the strike illegal and upheld the company's actions.
If the strike had not ended, the company was prepared to bring in replacement workers today.
Union officials declined to comment on the temporary settlement.
More than 600 members of United Rubber Workers Local 240 went on a wildcat, or not union-sanctioned, strike Monday. Although first-shift employees did not work, second-shift workers did, but then left by 9:30 p.m. after negotiations broke down.
Strikers said Rubatex had broken its contract by eliminating three inside laborers' jobs, then adding to others' workloads without negotiating a pay increase as the contract required.
Company guards shut employees out of the plant Tuesday morning.
The employees' contract expires Sept. 16. Their goals for a new three-year contract include a 20- to 40-cent increase in hourly wages.
Many employees also complained of extreme heat in the plants and said the company had frozen vacation days.
New machines were another point of contention. Workers said they put too much stress on operators. The company sought volunteers to run them, rather than negotiate, union members said.
Rubatex manufactures rubberized material and adhesives.
by CNB