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The eBearing News
September 13, 2004
Timken and UAW Sign New Labor
Contract for Torrington Workers
copyright © 2004 eBearing Inc.
The Timken Company (USA) and the United Auto Workers Local 1645 said they have reached
a new contract agreement, covering former Torrington employees at Timken facilities
in Torrington, Connecticut; specifically, employees at the Standard Plant.
The contract runs through September 8, 2007, replacing the three-year Standard Plant contract
forged with Torrington in 2001. It seems there may be few, if any,
Local 1645 workers still employed by then.
Timken announced in late July it will be shutting down the last of its bearing manufacturing
operations still housed at the old Torrington Standard Plant, putting 59 hourly
and 6 salary employees out of work by mid-2005.
Another 44 employees from Timken's automotive machine shop in the Standard Plant will transfer to the
"Excelsior" Building across town, named for the Torrington Company's original name.
After selling off the fixed-wing aircraft bearing business and transferring its 190 employees to Roller Bearing
Company of America (RBC), Timken was using only 60,000 square feet of the massive, century-old 550,000 square
foot, five-story building.
• article: RBC to acquire Timken airframe bearing business
• article: RBC completes Timken Standard Plant airframe bearing business acquisition
Timken said the small-scale operation left at the Standard Plant's antiquated facility was simply
not competitive against other Timken operations capable of taking on the work. Timken spokesman Jason
Saragian said, "This is a small operation that's not competitive because of high fixed costs."
At the time, Local 1645 said Timken's move was, "a slap in the face to the working
families that built this company. Selling the aircraft business to RBC was a tough enough pill to swallow,
but to transfer the last shreds of manufacturing left here to another Timken facility in the south is
just unacceptable."
Under Torrington, the number of
employees had recently been as high as 350.
Once Timken reorganized and sold the aircraft bearing operations, its
total Standard Plant employment dropped to approximately 100.
Local 1645 also claims the right to represent those employees now, "on the other
side of the building" at RBC's operation.
RBC has not yet moved the airframe bearing business out of its leased space in the Standard Plant, but
few expect it to remain there for long.
RBC and Local 1645 have been locked in a fight over whether the UAW has the right to
continue to represent those employees since RBC acquired the operation from Timken.
RBC has said it believes its Standard Plant employees are no longer represented by the UAW.
When it bought the business, the employees had been laid off by Timken; they were then encouraged
to apply to work for RBC, and RBC rehired approximately 40.
RBC holds it is essentially a new company with new ownership, and that the
bargaining unit is no longer intact.
The UAW has said the format of the buyout was essentially a ruse to avoid recognizing
the union and create a combination union and non-union facility where there once had been
an all-union plant.
That disagreement is now reportedly in front of the National Labor Relations Board.
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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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