September 11, 2015
By Steve Wishnia and Nea Tepel
A four-week strike by workers at the Ingersoll-Rand air-compressor plant in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga may end this week. Officials of International Association of Machinists District 65 said Sept. 7 that they had reached a tentative agreement with the company on a new contract.
The about 240 workers there had walked out after a contract extension expired. Ingersoll-Rand, which acquired the plant in January, was seeking mandatory overtime and a two-tier wage system. “That just shows the strength of labor in this community,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said while marching in Buffalo’s annual Labor Day parade. “In other areas, you see strikes and they never end. And here, you have a fairly short strike that’s resulting in a tentative agreement that seems to be a good one for all.” Read more
