Submitted to The Tribune
RALEIGH – Workers who make key components of electric grid say highly profitable company refuses to negotiate fair contract.
Members of UE Local 625, who work for Hitachi Energy at plants in Greensburg and Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, picketed the company’s North American headquarters in Raleigh Tuesday, demanding that the company drop its concessionary demands and bargain a fair contract with the union.
“UE Local 625 makes the equipment that keeps our energy infrastructure safe,” local president Gary Williams said. “We want these to be family sustaining jobs, so we retain workers that are the best at building our products. Hitachi is making huge profits but does not want to invest
into the workforce. It is pure corporate greed. But with the solidarity of our union and labor movement, we will get the contract we deserve.”
Hitachi workers from Pennsylvania were joined in North Carolina by members of UE’s North Carolina Local 150.
“When our fellow union members are under attack, we are gonna fight back,” said Willie Brown, president of the N.C. Public Service Workers Union, UE