Workers at ProFusion Industries continue to strike
MARIETTA, Ohio (WTAP) - Members of the International Chemical Workers Union Local 343C are still striking at ProFusion Industries in Marietta.
Workers at ProFusion Industries in Marietta have been on strike since February 25th. Union president Dennis Cliff said the strike comes after months of unsuccessful negotiations between Profusion and the Local 343C union. “We started our negotiations clear back in June of last year,” Cliff said. “And we just can’t seem to come to an agreement.”
Union representative Ed Rempel said the issues that are causing the strike go back to 2012, when the company first introduced a new two-tier system for classifying employees.Rempel said employees hired after 2012 were put in tier two, and received different treatment than those hired prior.
Union president Dennis Cliff said the system has contributed to division among the employees.
“We’ve just grown further and further apart, ever since tier one and tier two,” Cliff said. “A union is about equality. And that’s something they just don’t seem to understand.”
A statement from ProFusion said that, prior to the strike, the union rejected a proposal that “would have provided, on average, double-digit percentage wage and benefit increases this year.” However, union rep Ed Rempel said the raises offered by the company don’t come close to making up for money he says tier two employees have lost over the years.
Dennis Cliff explained: “There’s three of us in shipping. One of us, one of them is a B-scale, and he’s making a lot less than the rest of us doing the same job, because of the two tier system that’s spread out so far.”
Cliff said that eliminating the discrepancies between tier one and tier two employees is part of what he hopes the strike to achieve.
“Well, just bring everybody closer together on job time, bid time. All that stuff. They just need to get closer together than what they are right now. That’s what a union’s about, equality.”
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