Striking worker longs for trust, renewed talks at Brand-Rex: [A Edition]

Abstract

Jody Walsh is convinced the one-week-old strike at Brand-Rex could be settled quickly if the two sides would sit down and talk -- really talk -- about the issues dividing them.

Walsh said that atmosphere evaporated a little more than three years ago, when Brand-Rex was sold to its current owners, BICC Cables Corp.

Despite rumors in town, [Richard Lusk] said the company has no plans to leave Willimantic. It has highly skilled workers in Connecticut doing intricate tasks. Lusk and [Ronald Filius] said Brand-Rex is looking beyond the union contract for other ways to cut costs.

Jody Walsh is convinced the one-week-old strike at Brand-Rex could be settled quickly if the two sides would sit down and talk -- really talk -- about the issues dividing them.

Walsh, 35, is a union supporter who has worked for the Willimantic-based cable maker for 15 years. As the winter weather worsened last week, Walsh walked the picket lines outside the plant, hopeful -- but not optimistic -- talks would start again soon.

Gone, he said, is the cooperative atmosphere that used to exist between the town's largest private employer and its 400 factory workers. Gone, he said, is the sense of trust between the two sides.

Walsh said that atmosphere evaporated a little more than three years ago, when Brand-Rex was sold to its current owners, BICC Cables Corp.

But Richard Lusk, vice president of human resources for the parent company, said BICC Cables only wants to make the plant more efficient and better able to sustain workers' jobs.

Lusk said productivity at the plant his company took over in 1989 has been hampered by restrictive union rules that allow management only limited flexibility to match workers with work to be done. And the costs of employee benefits are out of line with the corporation's other operations, he said.

The company attempted to push through various work rule and benefit changes, which Lusk says are needed, during the last round of contract talks in 1989. Management even offered workers a $5,000-per-person bonus to accept the offer. But the members of Local 1156T of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposal after leaders argued the long-term losses would exceed the immediate financial gains.

Brand-Rex then quickly agreed to a new contract proposal that included only a few of the changes it sought. Workers wondered at the time what would happen three years later when the contract ran out.

Lusk and other managers say the changes are more important now than in 1989 because of worsened business conditions. Brand-Rex must find ways to cut its costs if it has any hopes of staying competitive, said President Ronald Filius.

Despite rumors in town, Lusk said the company has no plans to leave Willimantic. It has highly skilled workers in Connecticut doing intricate tasks. Lusk and Filius said Brand-Rex is looking beyond the union contract for other ways to cut costs.

But Walsh and other strikers say the company has made no effort to work with employees toward that goal. When the company implemented what it called its final contract offer last Sunday night over union objections, workers felt they had no choice but to strike.

"We have always worked with management trying to get around problems," Walsh said. "Nobody wants to be out here in the cold, but there is a complete breakdown in communications."

He made his own picket sign that includes the dictionary definition of negotiate.

"That is not is what is happening," Walsh said. "It's more like: Here you go, this is it, swallow it or see you later."

And he said that has left workers feeling they no longer can trust the company when managers promise they will not abuse the rule changes they are seeking.

"Trust is the biggest issue," Walsh said. "It's got to be a give-and-take situation. This is all over a bunch of words. I think it could be handled if they would sit down and negotiate."

For his part, Walsh, who is married but has no children, is ready to stay out as long as it takes.

"I got my last check today. I made my car payment and paid my rent," he said Thursday. "I'm set for the next month. If it goes longer than that, I'll find a way to survive."

He lamented the lost sense of cooperation between union workers and the company.

"We had always worked together with management," Walsh said. "Now we literally are on different sides of the fence."

Michael Remez is a Courant business writer