Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991 TAG: 9104060180
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY/ BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
More than 640 active members of Local 1764 will vote on ratification of the agreement Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Marion Senior High School, said Myron DeBord, local president.
"We felt the company movement was good enough to require a vote," DeBord said after 5 1/2 hours of negotiations with Brunswick. He declined to report details of the agreement.
Officials of Brunswick, operator of a defense plant, have had no comment on the strike.
DeBord said the efforts of Lonnie Stokes, a federal mediator from Knoxville, helped reach the tentative settlement.
In late February, the company offered a 7 percent pay increase over three years while the union asked for 7 percent a year or a total increase of 21 percent.
DeBord said earlier that seniority and other contract language were issues in the company proposal which was rejected by a vote of more than 11 to 1 in February. The union met with the company two other times during the five weeks but no progress was reported.
During the strike, 12 union employees have crossed the picket line to return to work, DeBord said.
The mood of the striking workers is "very upbeat," especially after the first distribution of strike payments Thursday, he said.
The union, formally known as the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, is planning a big parade on Main Street in Marion and a rally at the high school Sunday afternoon at 2:30.
DeBord said several hundred members of United Mine Workers, Teamsters and Amalgamated Transit Union and a half-dozen local unions are expected to join in the event.
Tentative agreement in the Brunswick strike came on the same day that United Auto Workers members ratified a Volvo GM Heavy Duty Truck proposal ending a strike at Dublin.
by CNB