Lake City Ammo Plant Workers on Strike
BY Herschel Smith
2 hours, 23 minutes ago
Approximately 1,350 union workers at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri, are escalating their strike against Olin Winchester as they demand better wages and stronger contracts.
Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 778 have been on strike since April 4 after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract offer from company management.
Workers held a solidarity rally Saturday, with hundreds of cars lining Route 78 outside the facility.
“What do we want? Contracts! When do we want it? Now!” the crowd chanted.
Workers said wages have not kept up with persistent inflation and paid sick leave is nonexistent. They also cited high turnover and excessive mandatory overtime as key concerns.
Scott Brown, directing business representative for IAM Local 778, said the union wants an agreement that addresses these issues.
[ … ]
The Lake City Army Ammunition Plant is a critical facility in the U.S. defense industrial base. Workers manufacture 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm and .50-caliber rifle ammunition for the military.
IAM workers said the facility is the only site capable of rapidly scaling production of small-caliber ammunition to meet national defense demands.
Union sources indicate very little production is currently taking place, which could impact the timely supply of ammunition to U.S. forces and allied partners.
This will certainly have a deleterious effect on training (my son estimates he shot more than half a million rounds in the workup to his Iraq deployment), but I also suspect it will have an effect on general civilian ammo availability in 5.56mm and 7.62mm.
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment