28-day strike cost about $4 million in payroll

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/news/117585453630920.xml

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NEWS

28-day strike cost about $4 million in payroll
Friday, April 06, 2007
By BRAD CROCKER

PASCAGOULA -- After being off the job for nearly a month, Alton Reyes said Thursday -- the first day after a 28-day strike at Northrop Grumman ended -- was different from most days he's experienced during his five years at the company's Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula.

Reyes and about 1,100 other workers returned to their respective trades with a $1.68 per hour raise they received after overwhelmingly rejecting two previous company offers. The three-year deal was ratified Wednesday by 60 percent of the roughly 3,300 union members who cast votes.

About 7,000 of the company's 11,500 employees are union members.

A 4-cent per hour insurance hike comes with the $1.68 raise, which will be followed in the subsequent years with raises of 55 cents per hour and hourly insurance increases of 15 and 10 cents, respectively.

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[Solo_in_MD]

1. This strike was pretty much off my radar

what was the scab percentage and are there other details out there?

[Omaha Steve]

2. Unions leader praises solidarity

http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/news/1175768147223720.xml

This strike was in the heart of Catrina country.

NEWS

Unions leader praises solidarity
Thursday, April 05, 2007
By BRAD CROCKER
The Mississippi Press

PASCAGOULA -- Jacklyn Amason voted yes, while her friend, Kyle Vann, said no on Wednesday to the contract offered by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, which contained hourly raises of $2.78 cents and health insurance hikes of 29 cents, both over a three-year period.

Amason, 43, of Greene County, has been a painter for 10 years. She has honored the strike that began March 8 but said she could not go any longer.

"I have bills piling up and have to get back to work," said Amason, who said the selling point for her was the front-end part of the package that has a $1.68 per hour raise the first year compared to 4 cents an hour for the insurance, which expired for thousands of workers last weekend.

Vann, however, said he was convinced the company could do better "and reach a little deeper" to meet his request of $4 an hour raises and smaller health insurance costs over three years, as well as adding dental and vision coverage, which the company did not offer.

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