A Utah court has ordered striking Hexcel workers not to gather in groups larger than five at each company gate at its West Valley facility following violent incidents on the picket lines.
The order also requires supervisors and employees crossing picket lines to drive more slowly.Judge Anne M. Stirba issued the 120-day restraining order that affects the 143 workers on strike at Hexcel's composite products division. The company sought the order in 3rd District Court Wednesday, and union attorneys and representatives agreed to its provisions in court Thursday.
"The reason we had to go for this is due to the violence on the picket lines," said John Bailey, Hexcel's director of human resources. "There have been more than one of those rock throwing incidents. We've had several cars that were significantly damaged by some object being drawn down the side of them. We've had nails in tires.
"One of favorite tactics of the union is stand en mass, make the vehicle stop and then damage it as it came through," Bailey said.
Bailey said people driving into the plant will slow down. "I think you can understand that when people have had their vehicles damaged, they're a little skittish. When they see an opening they go for it. It's been a scary situation all around," Bailey said.
The National Labor Relations Act spells out what employees and company officials can and cannot do during a strike.
Supervisory employees and some rank-and-file workers are going inside the Hexcel plant to continue working. Production is down, although Bailey said the company's fiber lines are almost back to pre-strike levels.
Hexcel also is looking for new employees.
Union members will obey the court's directive, said Julie Holzer, international representative for the Oil, Chemical and Atomic International Union.
"We do not condone violence on the picket line and we never have," Holzer said. "We will comply, of course, with the restraining order."
However, Holzer said it is important that company employees who are driving through the picket lines not go too fast since she said some strikers have gotten hurt.
"We had a lady who was clipped by a mirror on a car coming through the picket lines," Holzer said. "We have the right to move back and forth in front of the gate. They need to slow down enough to allow us to get out of the way."
There was a rumored incident of a striker throwing a rock at a car during the early stages of the strike that began last Saturday, but Holzer said she was not on the scene at the time and knows no details of the incident.
"I was not there when it happened. I heard the allegations, but I haven't seen any proof," she said.
"The real crime and the real violence being committed here is by the company," Holzer said, referring to the fact that Hexcel cut employee wages by an average of 30 percent when it purchased the company July 1 and offered a new wage and benefit package during recent labor talks that union members deem unfair.
"There are assaults on these families. These people have families, they have homes, they have college funds - and all that's being taken away," Holzer said.
Meanwhile, Holzer said both sides are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator on Nov. 22, although Bailey said company managers haven't been officially contacted yet.