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Unionized workers at Cleaver-Brooks head out on strike

Union seeking increased wages to meet rise in inflation

The unionized workers of Cleaver Brooks hit the picket line earlier this week, being in a legal position to strike as of midnight Wednesday.

United Steel Workers Local 7257 President Brad Ulch said they moved to strike mainly because the unionized employees’ wages were behind the rate of inflation.

“Wages are way behind and we’re hiring people here that don’t know how to weld and then actually training them to be welders because the welder wage is below market value,” he said. “I can’t tell you what the average wage here is off the top of my head, but we want - we need - the company to come back to the table and start bargaining with us.”

Ulch said there have been regular, nominal wage increases given by the company but nothing to help workers keep up with the rising inflation rate. Things have gotten pretty far behind, and he said workers are really struggling to put food on the table.

“Hopefully over the coming days, the membership will give us a number we can go in with when talks resume,” he said. “The employer put a final proposal in front of us and we took that to the membership and they turned it down. I don’t expect this to be a long strike - if the employer wants to come back and sit at the table and start bargaining, we could probably resolve this pretty quickly.”

There are approximately 130 unionized members who work at Cleaver Brooks and between 30-40 non-union employees.