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BIW Strikers Await Outcome Of Meetings With Mediator, As Dispute Enters Its 16th Day

Robbie Feinberg
/
Maine Public
Members of Bath Iron Works largest union take to the picket lines June 10, 2020.

Striking union workers at Bath Iron Works are awaiting the outcome of the company's meeting with a federal mediator, as the strike enters its 16th day.Union representatives met with the mediator Monday, and the next moves in the dispute depend on the company doing the same. 

"The  conversations went well," says.Local S6 negotiator Jay Wadleigh. "But ultimately it takes two bodies to dance, so until the company has their conversation we won't know where we'll be, what direction we're going in."

Bath Iron Works representatives are scheduled to meet with the federal mediator later this week.

Meanwhile, Wadleigh says, the union is holding weekly events to keep strikers' spirits up. "We had a pig roast, we had a barbeque, next week we're having a chili cook-off.  So we're having something every week so that people can bring their families."

The union initiated the strike after contract negotiatiators failed to reach agreement about the company's use of subcontractors and its effort to change seniority privileges at the shipyard.