[Editor’s Note: Last month United Electrical Workers Local 204 in Taunton, Massachusetts, called for mass picketing and blockading of entrances to a shuttered factory to stop the auction of its machines. See the story here.
[In response, the company, Esterline Technologies, has postponed the auction, in a temporary victory for the union and the city, which is moving forward to take the plant equipment by eminent domain. The workers have proposed to run the plant themselves if the company doesn’t want to.]
--------------
Esterline Technologies confirmed to UE Local 204 yesterday that it has cancelled the auction scheduled for December 14 and rescheduled it to January 19. There is no action needed in Taunton, just yet. We thank everyone supporting Local 204's fight for justice and jobs. We are meeting with the company today to continue negotiations over severance and jobs.
Back in November we contacted our city, state, and federal reps when we found out about the auction through regular internet searches. (The company sure wasn't going to tell us.) Our reps sent letters to the company asking for a postponement to February 15. Then we sent out a request for people to come to Taunton to help us stop the auction, and we got responses of "we'll be there" from all over New England. The postponement is welcome but it's still just a postponement. Esterline hasn't agreed to anything yet about UE Local 204 members’ jobs or severance.
Tuesday night the mayor and city council of Taunton voted unanimously to instruct the city solicitor to draft an ordinance requesting of the legislature a Home Rule Petition to take the presses and equipment at Haskon by eminent domain. This legislative step is necessary in this eminent domain proceeding due to the fact that Esterline leases the building and land and does not own it.
This is not an insignificant development. The end result of this process is that the company's assets can be taken by the city for job retention or creation that serves a "public purpose." It requires three readings, then goes to the legislature in January, and then back to the city council. Should the city decide to legally secure the presses and equipment, it is because the employees have secured the funds necessary to buy them. In their next vote the city would sell them back to the employees.
This is the legal avenue left to us to secure title to the tools of the trade which have given generations of UE Local 204 members the ability to make a living.
Peter Knowlton is president of United Electrical Workers Northeast Region.
