Skip to main content

News

Search News

Topics
Date Published Between

For the Media

For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.

CWA Alerts Investors to Labor Dispute at SPX Subsidiary: Management's Lockout of Workers Poses Risk

Washington, D.C. -- The Communications Workers of America and IUE-CWA, its industrial division, are contacting institutional investors of SPX Corp. (NYSE: SPW) and analysts to alert them to conditions at an SPX subsidiary, Fenn Manufacturing, where workers who normally perform highly skilled work for the defense industry have been locked out in a labor dispute.

The text of the letter, sent today by CWA President Morton Bahr and IUE-CWA President Edward Fire, follows:

As a major investor in SPX, we write to alert you to a labor dispute at one of SPX's subsidiaries, Fenn Manufacturing in Newington, Connecticut. Fenn has locked out our 117 members, and a handful of replacement employees are now doing the work of this highly-skilled work force for parts critical to our national defense.

Fenn has been in business for 100 years and its workers have had union representation for a half century. During this time, Fenn has developed a reputation for high tolerance machine parts for the aerospace industry. SPX bought Fenn in 2001. Currently, it manufactures rotor assembly components for the Apache, Black Hawk, Chinook and Super Stallion helicopters. The last few years have brought record-breaking prosperity to Fenn and there is now a large backlog of orders.

Investors should be concerned about this lockout because of the risk it poses to the long-term future of SPX and its Fenn subsidiary in this unique national defense sector. Because Fenn is currently using replacement workers to produce parts critical to our national defense, Fenn's long history of skilled production is being tested.

As an investor, we ask you to join with the entire Connecticut congressional delegation and other elected officials in communicating with SPX President and CEO John Blystone at SPX Corporate Headquarters, 2300 One Wachovia Center, 301 South College Street, Charlotte, NC, 28202, about this situation. Urge SPX to return to the negotiating table and end the lockout of our skilled members. This outcome serves shareholders, the workers and our country in this time of national crisis.

More information is available at ga.cwa-union.org/TaketheHighRoad/Info.
###

Press Contact

CWA Communications