By Paul Post
ppost@digitalfirstmedia.com
@paulvpost on Twitter
WATERFORD, N.Y. >> Union and company officials are expected to resume talks Tuesday for the first time since workers began striking nine weeks ago at Momentive Performance Materials in Waterford.
About 700 people walked off the job on Nov. 2 to protest proposed retirement and healthcare reductions Momentive has called for under a new three-year contract.
Union members who make an average $83,500 per year, according to a company spokesperson, have suffered significant losses while striking and the plant is believed to be operating well below full capacity with replacement workers.
Also, serious concerns have arisen about the ability of new workers to handle dangerous chemicals safely. Momentive makes adhesives and sealants for the construction and automotive industries. The strike is costing Saratoga County taxpayers $7,560 per day, more than $500,000 to date, for sheriff’s deputies to maintain order at the site.
“That’s one more reason this has to come to an end in the very near future with a fair contract involved,” Waterford town Supervisor Jack Lawler said. “There are no winners in a labor strike. The situation isn’t sustainable for either party.”
A large pile of wood, including pallets and old utility poles, is stacked up outside union headquarters across from the plant on Route 4. Workers burn it around the clock to keep warm while walking picket lines. Temperatures Sunday night dipped to about zero degrees. Strikers stay out in all kinds of weather including snow and rain.
“The community has been very good to us,” said Darryl Houshower, Local 81359 vice president. “They drop off firewood for a ‘Keep ’em Warm’ campaign, and food.”
Union President Dominic Patrignani said the workers’ resolve is still strong, although a handful of members have taken jobs elsewhere.
Strikers became eligible for unemployment payments after the seventh week.
“I haven’t gotten my first check yet,” Houshower said.
This week’s talks are scheduled to last three days and are being held at the request of regional union leaders. IUE-CWA Local 81359 belongs to the AFL-CIO.
Workers have mixed attitudes about the prospects of getting back to work soon.
“I’m hopeful,” said James Stoddard, of Albany, a distillation control operator who’s worked at the plant seven years. With a wife and three young boys to support, Stoddard said he’s contemplated looking for work elsewhere.
“It takes it’s toll on you, the stress and uncertainty,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s time yet. This is a good job. It pays well.”
Amsterdam resident Robert Hohn is less optimistic.
“[Momentive] said from the start they would let us stay out six months without making any concessions,” he said. “We aren’t asking for more, we aren’t being greedy. All we want is to hold onto what we’ve got.”
Workers say they’ve made concessions in each of the last two three-year contracts.
Company spokesperson Tina Reiber has said, “Our changes to retirement programs have been designed to better align our benefits to market-based competitive benefit programs.”
Talks began in June when the last three-year contract expired, but the sides hadn’t meet face-to-face until this week since the strike began.
“On Dec. 7, the union sent a request to meet with us for the first time since the strike began,” Momentive said in a statement. “They asked us to return to the table the second week of January. We have responded that we are available to meet all that week, if necessary.”
At least two minor incidents have occurred during the strike.
On Dec. 31, a tractor-trailer driver from Connecticut was charged with reckless endangerment after making a plant delivery. Igor P. Semenyaka, 46, of West Hartford, was charged after allegedly driving at striking workers and nearly hitting one of them.
On Nov. 28, a Cohoes man, 55-year-old John Gary, was charged with falsely reporting an incident. On Nov. 13, he called 911 and reported a cloud from an alleged explosion at the plant. A sheriff’s investigation determined there was no such incident.
