Updated: Union leaders say they have settled a two-month dispute with Westmoreland Plastics Co., a Latrobe, Pa.-based thermoset injection and compression molder.
“All [union] workers were called ... back to work and the company has honored their previously negotiated and executed contract,” a union official told Plastics News on Feb. 2.
“The plant employs 16 union members and eight or nine management.”
Officials from several labor organizations had joined a picket line on Feb. 1 outside the company.
Union leaders said that for more than two months, workers had been locked out of the plant, which manufactures components for appliances, medical devices, electrical distribution equipment, sensors and the aerospace industry.
The leaders had said the company is trying to break the union. According to local media reports, the company laid off its 14 union workers. When it recalled five workers recently, a union official said the company failed to honor its contract to rehire according to seniority.
Westmoreland and its parent, Latrobe Associates Inc., voluntarily filed in December for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to documents filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Northwestern Pennsylvania Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, issued a news release Jan. 31 noting that George Piasecki, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO's Pennsylvania branch, would speak to picketers.
Also expected to attend were Harriet Ellenberger, secretary-treasurer of the Greater Westmoreland Central Labor Council; Walter Geiger, executive board member of the Greater Westmoreland CLC; and Bob Wagner, president of the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 88667.