Members of Navy shipbuilder Bath Iron Works’ biggest union continue to strike, and on Tuesday the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAM, sent a letter to Congress urging politicians to support striking workers.
In the letter, IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. asked that members of Congress to “send a strong message to the company that they should promptly return to the bargaining table with new ideas and proposals in order to seek a fair and equitable settlement to this disagreement.”
About 4,300 Local S6 workers went on strike June 22 after voting to reject a three-year contract proposal from the company. Two major issues that employees say triggered the strike were BIW’s use of increased subcontract labor and changes that workers say would threaten seniority practices.