UE NEWS Updates

Four hours after beginning the process for negotiating a new union contract with their employer, members of UE Local 155 at Chasen Fiber Technologies were notified that their parent company, Integreon Global, intended to shut down their plant on November 1.

A New Jersey law requires that companies pay severance when they shut down a plant, but the Chasen facility’s small size exempts it from the law. Integreon attempted to take advantage of that loophole to avoid providing any severance to its workers.

The graduate student workers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) reached a significant milestone on October 1, when they participated in their first bargaining session to negotiate a union contract. These workers, part of a joint program between WHOI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have been organizing their union since early 2023. Inspired by successful union drives by graduate workers at other institutions, particularly MIT, the WHOI workers were determined to secure better protections and benefits.

The UE Eastern Region held its fall council meeting on October 26 in Baltimore, home of Local 197-Teachers and Researchers United (TRU). Local 197, who settled their first contract in the spring, had over a dozen members in attendance, joining members of locals from North Carolina to western Pennsylvania to Vermont. Delegates and guests were welcomed by Eastern Region President George Waksmunski at the beginning of the meeting and Local 197 leader Anna Word said a few words to welcome everyone to their local’s hometown.

On Wednesday, October 30, UE Local 115 member Licinia Ochoa, who was terminated last summer in retaliation for her leadership in the union, returned to work at the Refresco bottling plant at her same machine, seniority, and pay. The local had circulated a bilingual petition demanding her reinstatement which was signed by hundreds of people, including both workers in the shop and supporters from the community and around the country.