In all, 297 workers have been locked out since the weekend, with workers taking shifts on two picket lines, one on one side of the 101 Waco St. plant and a second gathering on the other side of the plant, on Bruckner Drive, Konicki said.
As of early Wednesday, Konicki said he had not heard from the company. But he said workers are faring well.
“They’re good,” he said. “The community has been good. They (locked-out workers) have been overfed on the picket lines by random individuals just saying, ‘I like what you’re doing.’”
After receiving a “last, best and final offer” Feb. 16, UAW members voted 230 to 37 against a company contract proposal, the union said.
A spokesman for the Charlotte, N.C.-based company said earlier this week the plant is “open and operating as normal.”
“Collins Aerospace is prepared to continue negotiating in good faith with UAW Local 128 and seeks to reach an agreement that recognizes and rewards our employees’ contributions while allowing us to remain competitive,” company spokesman Al Killeffer said in an email Wednesday. He did not immediately respond to a question about when talks might resume.
This is the first lockout at the plant since the late 1960s, at least, Konicki said.
“People may think we’re on strike,” he said. “We’re not on strike. We’re wanting to go in. We wanting to work. We just don’t have a contract.”
In a strike, workers vote to walk off their jobs. In a lockout, companies trespass workers off their property and continue production by other means.
The tally by which the contract was rejected is an indication that members did not believe Collins’ offer was a “fair deal,” he said.
“We thought they would in good faith continue to negotiate so we could get something out,” he added.
Collins’ wheels and brakes division is located in Troy, a facility that dates back to what had been a Goodrich plant when United Technologies acquired it in 2012.
The plant joined Collins Aerospace in 2018 after United Technologies split into three independent companies.
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