Union considering strike vote, leader says

The threat of a strike by more than 300 union members looms at the Central Moloney plant in Pine Bluff, according to a union leader.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1658 President Charles West said Friday night that the group’s negotiating committee met earlier in the day to determine its next course of action. Union members in Central Moloney’s transformer division voted 208-14 on Tuesday to reject a new three-year work and benefits package presented by the company, while union members in the components wing ratified the offer by 10-6.

Founded in 1949, Central Moloney supplies distribution transformers throughout the world and, according to Vice President Chris Hart, has never experienced a “work stoppage.”

The company and union are at odds on a number of proposed issues, including differences in benefits offered to hourly and salaried employees, salary increases, contributions to workers’ pension funds, collective bargaining rights and health insurance particulars.

West said Friday night that union leaders are trying to organize a meeting involving all members within the next two weeks for a possible strike vote. He said company officials “want us to give them an answer by Tuesday morning or they’re going to consider us to be at an impasse.”

For a second time, he stressed that union members “don’t want a strike.”

“That would be bad for the workers, the company and the community,” he said.

West, a 17-year employee of the plant, said the union committee has received a letter from the company in which management “says ‘no’ to all of the changes we have proposed.”

“One way or another, things will have to work out,” Hart said after Tuesday’s voting, adding that he believes the current contract offer puts the company “in the best position” to continue serving its employees, customers and partnering firms.

A Central Moloney employee for the past decade, Hart is also chairman of the board of directors of the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce.