Since 6 a.m. on November 1, rotating shifts of striking members of the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) have maintained an 18-hour-a-day picket line at the bottom of the road leading up to the Kingston Business Park.
Howmet Aerospace, a diversified manufacturing company mainly serving the aerospace and transportation industries, had failed to offer what workers from local Union 1562 were looking for in a new three-year contract.
Forced-air propane heaters at the ready, the first shift, dressed in jackets and beanies, brandished “On Strike” signs in the near-freezing temperatures. The sound of car horns honked by passing supporters regularly punctuated the air.
Kevin Hartrum, a 38-year veteran, explained his job, which is essentially cutting metal with a giant saw.
“I run the machines, plus I do all the steel work, cut all the steel plugs for them,” Hartrum said. “Long bar stock.”
Other unions, the United Auto Workers being the most visible, were having success. Hartrum thought it was a good time to strike.
“Yeah, we have to,” said Hartrum. “We’ve got to feed our families. Look at the economy. Look at the food prices.”
The company had sent out a letter to striking employees informing those on the picket line that the company would remain open. It hoped that they would report to work.
“We recognize the right of an individual to strike, but we equally recognize the right of an individual to work,” the letter communicated. “The law is very clear than an employee has the legal right to cross a picket line.”
The likelihood that a worker would buck the solidarity of the union is low. To do so was to be branded a scab. Scabs and the wives of scabs weren’t likely to be invited bowling or to be welcomed to a co-worker’s dinner parties.
A striker who asked to remain unidentified confided the plain truth. “They just can’t cross the line because then you’re gonna have to work with us when the strike is over. We don’t do that.”
The work stoppage
The company letter explained that the compensation of any worker striking would cease on the first day of work stoppage along with “any benefits including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability coverage and AD&D coverage” (Accidental Death and Dismemberment).
Certain benefits not enumerated in the letter could continue provided the employee paid the full cost of coverage along with a two percent administrative fee. Howmet contributions to savings plans would also cease during the stoppage.
“We’re really not supposed to talk,” apologized another striking worker.
“It’s a free country,” responded Haltrum, He said it again.
Bob Fiore, a veteran of 34 years and an assembler of Howmet fastening systems, cautioned that the man to talk to to get the details right was IAMAW business representative Kevin Weidman. After all, the point was to make a deal, not to unnecessarily antagonize the company.
A soft-spoken man, Fiore said he had been in negotiations with the company to try to get what he could for the people in the union.
The money wasn’t there
Reached by telephone, Weidman explained the timeline.
“We met as a committee with the company the last full week in October,” he said. “We had some discussions, and when the final offer was made, the membership believed that it wasn’t a fair offer in regard to wages and some hourly issues. We went back to the table. The company has fixed some of their shift-off issues that the members had, but the money still wasn’t there. My members worked through Covid. This company has record-breaking profits, and the workers are just looking for their fair share.”
Pressed later for the numbers, Weidman couldn’t be exact but said that he knew that quarter over quarter the company was telling the members that it’s been hitting milestones and records.
On November 6, Howmet Aerospace stock soared eight percent on the news its third-quarter results had beaten analysts’ forecast. Total revenues had increased 18 percent over the same quarter last year. All divisions of the company are doing well. It had paid down debt, reducing interest payments.
Total annual revenues for Howmet in 2023 are projected at $6.545 billion.
One of the strikers was palpably angry. “All over the world, all these big corporate businesses are making money,” he said. “And we’re the ones are struggling. We’re working paycheck to paycheck. We even worked during Covid. They promised us bonuses, and we didn’t get nothing.”
Because the nature of their work was important to the government, they were classified as essential workers.
“We run a CNC, which is Computer Numerical Control lathes and mills,” said another worker wary of giving his identity. “We take the pieces of raw steel, and we turn them and machine them into finished parts. These parts are part of a bigger assembly, and they all fit together to make the product that Howmet sells. This particular product, It’s like a pop rivet on steroids. They’re a very specific kind of industrial fastener. They do everything from hold the wheels on freight trains to Airbus aircraft, the skin and parts inside an airplane.”
According to Hartrum, many families have worked for this company for generations.
“Father to son, father to son,” he explained. “So this is like a small company that’s been in Kingston for a long time. It was absorbed by a larger company. When it was taken over it was called Huck. There’s not a lot of industry, in the City of Kingston. A lot of people that are out here on strike, they live here. They work here their families work here. It supports a lot of families in the City of Kingston.”
“We are the lowest-paid”
“Our wages here,” interjected a striker, “You can look down south and out west and here in the United States. For the same jobs that we do here and what they’re doing there, they’re making five to ten dollars more. We are the lowest-paid. Look at the railroad machine guys, look at look at what they make. Out in Connecticut, you can look at Sikorsky Aircraft. North to Schenectady, you’ll see General Electric. You go south to Long Island. Any one of those aircraft companies down there, and they’re getting paid more to do the same thing that our guys are doing.”
One of the drivers passing by slowed down spoke out his window and received a round of laughter.
“He said if you hired me I’d go on strike, too,” Haltrum smiled. “Just look around, half the people are struggling right now. We’re all struggling. I think the union is standing pretty strong, though. I think we’re gonna hang together.
Of 70 union members in a shop of near 100 workers, 65 voted for the strike.
Howmet has not responded to a request for comment.
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