Erie, PA Wabtec, U.E. 506, 618 members to hold contract talks Tuesday

Wabtec Corp. officials and members of its unionized workforce will meet again Tuesday morning to negotiate a new labor contract and end a nearly seven-week strike at the company's Lawrence Park Township plant.

The bargaining session is scheduled for 10 a.m. and will include a federal mediator, Wabtec officials said on its website. Members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Locals 506 and 618 confirmed the meeting on their website.

A mediator has facilitated the talks since July 6.

Their last bargaining session was held Wednesday, though those talks failed to produce a deal. A number of issues separate the union and Wabtec.

Key points of contention include wage increases and a progressive wage scale that starts new employees at a lower wage and increases their pay to match legacy employees over a 10-year period. The union has proposed shortening that progression to five years, but Wabtec has not budged.

The two parties also continue to disagree over vacation scheduling, grievance procedures and the union's desire to cap health care costs.

About 1,400 union workers have been on strike since June 22, when the union rejected the company's most recent offer.

The two sides did reach a court-approved consent decree Thursday to regulate the actions of striking employees on the picket lines.

More:Wabtec, union reach court-approved deal over conduct of striking workers at Erie plant

The consent decree's first term prohibits the the union from harassing non-striking workers and otherwise "interfering with the business activities of Wabtec." The deal also enjoins Wabtec "from any and all acts or threats of violence, intimidation, coercion, molestation, libel or slander against the Defendants (the UE) engaged in the labor dispute."

The agreement lists a total of 15 terms that regulate strikers' conduct. Among them is a requirement that limits the number of pickets at any one gate to no more than 10 at a time. The consent degree further dictates that those pickets keep moving.

Contact David Bruce at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.