Contract talks between Kennecott Corp. and unions appear to be at a standstill after the chief union negotiator left town.
The unions had requested late Thursday morning that the parties resume negotiations."Subsequent to that, we attempted to contact Mr. (Robert) Petris, only to find out he had checked out of his hotel minutes after sending the fax and in fact, flew back to his home in Oregon early this afternoon," Kennecott spokesman Greg Boyce said Thursday.
Wayne Holland, area subdirector for the United Steelworkers of America, District 38, said Kennecott officials had insisted their last offer was final and they would not meet with the union negotiation team unless it made substantive changes to its latest proposal.
"If they talk about someone going home who has other business to take care of, that's ludicrous," said Holland. "They know darn well how to get hold of me or Bob if they choose to."
Boyce responded: "We continue to reiterate that Kennecott is willing to meet with the union any time, any place as long as it has as its goal a good faith effort to resolve issues."
Neither company nor union officials expected communications to resume until after the Independence Day holiday. Kennecott employees have been working without a contract since midnight Wednesday, when the old pact expired.
Meanwhile, Kennecott officials said they were considering legal action against the union for releasing a "blatantly false statement" that Kennecott had hired additional security forces from Ohio.
The union made the statement to the Deseret News late Thursday morning but Kennecott was not prepared at that time to respond, company officials said.
"Of course we have brought in additional security. That is standard precautionary procedure in the event of a strike. These people are brought in to protect our employees, picketers and to control the flow of traffic, as well monitor activities. They are not armed. In fact, Kennecott does not employ armed security guards. And contrary to Mr. Petris' news release, additional security personnel are not affiliated with a company named Nuckols Inc.," Boyce said.Holland said unions leaders had received information from union members that additional security guards had been brought onto the Magna mine property but the unions were trying to determine where the security guards were based.
"They don't deny it now (that they hired security). They just deny it was Nuckols," Holland said. "That's back to 1930s labor relations. We're trying to bring them into the 1990s. We're not going to let them drag us back into the dark with them."