Kongsberg workers who are members of USW Local 1-524 march on Central Avenue this past Saturday following a rally in Fountain Park. Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent
Kongsberg workers stage rally in park

It was a day for union solidarity and community support, but also one of bitterness and

Local 1-524 President Aaron Collins speaks at Saturday's rally. All photos by Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent

frustration, as members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1-524 held a rally in Fountain Park Saturday to thank supporters.

Hundreds of people, some of them union officials – including other USW locals and district officials, United Auto Workers officials and even representatives of the Van Wert Federation of Teachers – turned out to provide support, both emotional and financial, for the locked-out workers of Kongsberg Automotive’s Van Wert plant.

Donations from union representatives totaled between $10,000 and $15,000 on Saturday.

Several speakers angrily denounced Kongsberg management officials for what is perceived as a failure to bargain in good faith with local union officials. Kongsberg President Peter Spencer was depicted by a person in a rat’s costume as those at the rally clapped and cheered.

Van Wert Mayor Louis Ehmer, who had taken some heat earlier for not doing enough to support Kongsberg workers during a City Council meeting, spoke at the rally and said the community was behind the workers, while also commending the local union for its demeanor on the picket line.

“You people have demonstrated that you are out there in a dignified way trying to protect and secure your jobs,” the mayor said to applause, adding that he was a bit surprised at union workers’ good behavior since he was originally from Detroit, Mich., where union disputes often turned violent.

Aaron Collins, the 37-year-old president of Local 1-524, bitterly denounced both company officials – most specifically former human resources manager Tom Herman – and government officials who have allowed workers to be exploited by domestic and foreign companies.

Locked-out workers and their supporters listen to speakers during Saturday's rally at Fountain Park.

Collins talked about how, as a child, he thought it was neat that astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, was from nearby Wapakoneta. “It seemed like, as a child, anything was possible” in America, Collins said, adding, though, that “the American Dream is slipping away from us right now as we speak.”

He angrily criticized both major political parties for their lack of support for U.S. workers, noting: “Both sides are out to get us, both are out for themselves,” and adding that a third party dedicated to middle class Americans may be the answer to make changes at the federal level.

However, he did have praise for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, who has phoned and written letters to Kongsberg company officials in support of local workers.

John Ryan, Senator Brown’s state director, attended the rally and had words of support for the locked-out workers. Ryan outlined the senator’s actions in support of the local workers, commended non-company employees attending the rally for their support of the locked-out workers and also used the USW’s fighting slogan, “One Day Longer,” in saying the senator would back the workers “one day longer than you need” until Kongsberg returns to the table to bargain in good faith.

USW District 1 Director Dave McCall also spoke during the rally, and later to media representatives, about Local 1-524’s struggle to get back to the bargaining table. McCall said the union was working on a couple of fronts to put pressure on Kongsberg to resume negotiations. Those include a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that accuses Kongsberg of bad faith bargaining, illegal surveillance and failure to provide necessary financial documentation to union negotiators.

McCall said the NLRB had investigators in Van Wert last week to take depositions related to the complaint.

The USW district president also said the USW was working with international unions doing business with Kongsberg to put pressure on the company to resume negotiations from outside the United States. A return to the bargaining table is all union officials want, he said.

“We stand ready and prepared to go back to the table and bargain for a fair and just contract,” McCall added.

He added that the situation in America today, with companies “outsourcing” operations to Mexico, China and other countries, needs to stop.

“Workers have had enough,” McCall said. “Companies cannot continue to exploit workers like this.”

Following the rally, local union members and supporters staged a peaceful march through downtown Van Wert.

Kongsberg: It's what they don't say
   Once again, a contingent of top Kongsberg Automotive officials have come to Van Wert to try and make their blue-collar workers look like the bad guys in their labor dispute.

Like Peter Spencer a few months ago, Kongsberg group vice president Jarle Nymoen met Thursday with a local news medium to let the community know how hard company officials are trying to keep the local plant here in Van Wert. Their words nearly brought tears to my eyes. Well, almost. Actually, I think they were tears of laughter.

When you strip the rhetoric out, Nymoen basically said there is a bright future for the company’s shift towers here in Van Wert if it wasn’t for those greedy union workers who demand a wage they can live on.

While workers in Mexico and China may be able to live on $9 an hour, one very much doubts that Norwegian workers back in Kongsberg could even pay to put gasoline in their cars on that wage.

In addition to trying to put public pressure on local Kongsberg union workers to settle for an unlivable wage, Nymoen and attorney Todd Dawson of Baker & Hostetler, who sent a letter to local news media earlier in the week, are trying to make union officials look bad for “lying” that Kongsberg is unwilling to meet and negotiate with them.

Actually, I think the meaning of the word “negotiate” is what Kongsberg and union officials seem to disagree on the most. While Dawson asserted that United Steelworkers District 1 President Dave McCall was wrong when he said company officials weren’t willing to meet for negotiations, what McCall actually said was: “We stand ready and prepared to go back to the table and bargain for a fair and just contract.”

Dawson’s own letter included the company’s idea of negotiations when he said that, while the company was willing to sit down and talk, it was committed to its final offer made prior to the lockout.

Does that sound like someone willing to sit down and talk about a “fair and just contract”?

In addition, the word “negotiation,” as defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary, is “discussion aimed at reaching an agreement.” If 303 out of 312 people voting on a contract turn it down, it seems highly unlikely that an agreement will be forthcoming. One would even think it disingenuous of Kongsberg officials to feel such an agreement was even possible.

When I look at statements made by Nymoen and Dawson, I also read the subtext: In effect, what they really mean, but don't actually say.

First, Dawson says the temporary workers are just that and won’t get permanent jobs. However, Nymoen says the company feels there are American workers who will work for the wages it wants to pay (9 bucks an hour) and notes that the temp workers have basically shown the company was right by doing just that.

Nymoen, always the reasonable guy, then says he is in Van Wert to listen. Of course, the only people he has listened to so far are management people, but he says he would like to hear the union’s side as well. Makes you wonder why, if he was so eager to hear from guys like USW local President Aaron Collins, he didn’t set up a meeting beforehand so they could sit down right off. I guess local Kongsberg management officials don’t know where Collins can be located. If he wasn’t locked out, he probably would have been at the plant. Go figure.

There’s also what I think is a veiled threat in the Nymoen article. Nymoen states that, failing to attempt to work through a contract with union workers would have meant, and I quote: “the plant would have been shut down by the spring of 2009.” Makes me think that was the plan all along, but I’m just cynical, I guess.

I WILL agree with Mr. Nymoen’s unspoken inference that someone is being greedy here. However, it isn’t union workers trying to earn enough to pay their bills who are greedy, but company officials who want blue-collar workers to shoulder ALL the costs of becoming competitive, while they continue to rake in mounds of cash for socking it to them.

The main unanswered question in this whole Kongsberg mess is this: If the company is not competitive, what sacrifices are its white-collar workers and top executives making to improve that? The unspoken answer to that is “finding cheaper blue-collar workers.”

If that were NOT the answer, we in the media would certainly have been bombarded with information on white-collar wage cuts and downsizing. After all, those actions make the company look good when negotiating with the union.

When you’re taking cuts as well, you can say this to the union: “Why are you unwilling to take a wage cut when we’re making financial sacrifices ourselves to make this company more competitive?”

Has anybody heard Kongsberg officials say anything like that? I haven’t.

Of course, if you do say that, you then have to prove your sacrifices are as great as those you’re asking of the union, but that would likely be the case, wouldn’t it, if becoming competitive were a team effort?

Moreover, Kongsberg knew what the financial situation was when they bought the local Teleflex plant. Apparently, Teleflex was doing all right with the plant. If Kongsberg can't run the plant at a profit, maybe they need to sell it to someone who can.

I don’t know about my fellow community members, but I, for one, am sick of a company that thinks it can operate like the “union-busting” companies of the 1930s that hired scabs to replace union workers, goons to enforce their will on those locked out, and threats to force them to comply.

Unlike most members of this community, Kongsberg officials obviously only see their union workers as obstacles to their own greed, rather than as neighbors and friends just trying to make a living.

How very sad.

--Dave Mosier

As a Norwegian citizen and Kongsberg native I am embarrassed on behalf of Norwegian industry-owners. Norwegian trade unions has for over a century  fought against the practices of union-breaking and scab-working, which as a result has established fair worker's rights as a proud tradition in this country, and given trade unions a strong position in society.

In addition, the Norwegian people and diplomats working in foreign countries has an image of Norwegian foreign policy as just and being a catalyst for peace and development around the world. Even the affairs of private companies are closely scrutinized by the media and the government. This case, for example, has generated some attention in national media, which in turn led me to this site.

However, I think there is potential for more attention around this case in Norwegian media. Kongsberg Automotive is a company based off the keystone industry in the city of Kongsberg, and has close ties to the local community. The CEO and chairman of the company are norwegian citizens who probably resides close to, if not in, Kongsberg. It could be worth your while to voice your opinions about this case in the local newspaper, Laagendalsposten, which recieves letters to the editor through redaksjonen@laagendalsposten.no. You could also try the national newspaper Aftenposten through debatt@aftenposten.no.

Putting pressure on the heads of the company could, I think, be a valuable tool in these workers' struggle for their jobs and rights.  

 With the best of luck from overseas,

Eyvind Søraa