Syracuse, N.Y. -- The union representing employees at Remington Arms Co.'s gun factory in Ilion is planning two days of protests over what it says is the company’s refusal to pay severance to nearly 600 workers whose jobs have been terminated.þþThe United Mine Workers Local 717 said its members, their families and members of the Ilion community will stage the protests from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday and Thursday. They plan to meet in a parking lot across the street from Remington’s huge factory, then fan out to distribute leaflets and encourage supporters in the Herkimer County village to “honk and wave.”þþThe union said Remington’s old owners terminated the jobs of 585 workers in Ilion on Monday and are refusing to pay severance owed to them under their collective bargaining agreement.þþRemington filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of U.S. Bankruptcy Code on July 27, the second time it had done so in the past two years.þþU.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Clifton R. Jessup Jr. of the Northern District of Alabama approved the sale of the non-Marlin portion of Remington’s firearms business to Roundhill Group LLC for $13 million on Sept. 30. However, the company’s old owners will remain in possession of the factory in Ilion until the sale to Roundhill is completed, according to the union.þþThe company closed the factory and furloughed its more than 700 employees, including approximately 600 union members, right before last month’s bankruptcy auction. Union officials say they expect many of their members to be rehired by Roundhill when it takes over the plant.þþIn the meantime, they are demanding the old owners provide severance pay to terminated workers and are criticizing the company for its plan to drop employee health insurance coverage on Saturday.þþ“While discussions are ongoing to reopen the plant under new owners, the old owners are taking money out of the pockets of the workers, food from their families,” United Mine Workers International President Cecil Roberts said in a statement Tuesday.þþ“They are cutting off health care for thousands of people, some who are in the middle of cancer treatments, surgical recovery, physical therapy, or other critical medical treatments. The workers made the old company successful, not the other way around. This is the thanks they get. They and their families are not going to stand for it.”þþRemington did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Source: Syracuse.com
