Strikers Halt Work at Pipe Plant in Fontana
Workers demanding higher wages shut down operations Thursday at the Fontana plant of Ameron Concrete & Steel Pipe Group, the region’s largest manufacturer of water distribution pipes.
About 100 workers seeking a 5% wage hike voted unanimously to strike Wednesday night after three months of negotiations failed to produce a new three-year contract. The strike, which began early Thursday, idled the plant’s entire labor force, leaving only a handful of office workers reporting for work Thursday.
Members of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and the Laborers International Union had been working without a contract since Friday, when a two-month extension of their previous labor agreement expired and workers voted down Ameron’s latest contract proposal.
The strike caught Ameron management by surprise, spokesman Dan Stracner said, given that both sides had agreed earlier this week to turn the impasse over to a federal mediator. The parties are scheduled to sit down with the mediator today.
Ameron Concrete’s parent, Pasadena-based Ameron International Corp., last week reported record earnings for fiscal 1997.
Both union and Ameron sources indicated a resolution may be no more than a few days away.
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