Michael Hinchley, a lead machinest at Honeywell in South Bend, stands with his dog, an English mastiff named Bear, on Tuesday at the corner of North Bendix Drive and Westmoor Street in South Bend. Honeywell locked Hinchley and other members of United Auto Workers Local 9 out of the South Bend plant on Monday after the union rejected the company's new contract offer. Tribune Photo/KEVIN ALLEN
SOUTH BEND — Union employees at Honeywell plant stood in drizzling rain on Tuesday as they spent a second day locked out of the west-side factory.
Honeywell is preventing members of United Auto Workers Local 9 from entering the plant until they approve a new contract.
The union's five-year contract expired May 3, and members voted at the end of last week to reject the company's new offer. While Honeywell emphasized that the offer provides competitive pay raises, the union said the contract will increase employees' health insurance costs.
The plant, which makes brakes and wheels for commercial and military airplanes, is continuing to operate with salaried employees and temporary workers. About 775 people are employed at the plant, and 317 of those are UAW Local 9 members.
Michael Hinchley, a lead machinist who has worked at the South Bend plant for a decade, stood in a raincoat Tuesday afternoon at the corner of Bendix Drive and Westmoor Street. With his English mastiff "Bear" at his side, Hinchley held a sign that read, "UAW locked out by greedy Honeywell."
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