WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note:  A Total of 150 Striking, Union-Represented Workers are in Week 10 of Their Walkout at RHI Monofrax Just Outside Jamestown, Which is Placing a Strain On the Families of the Company’s Employees and Cast a Pall Over the Upcoming Holiday Season.  According to Union Representatives, RHI Monofrax Wants its Striking Workers to Agree in a New Contract to Massive Increases in Health Care Costs for a Plan With Far Less Coverage, While Giving the Company the Unilateral Ability to Change Plans and Rates as They See Fit.  The Company’s Also Insisting On Freezing the Defined Benefit Pension and Replacing it With a Standard Matching 401k With Far Less Value.  More Than 300 Showed Up for a Supportive Rally That Was Held Last Week Outside the Falconer Plant, Including Unions and Their Members From Across Western New York (For More Information, See Your On-Line Labor Newspaper’s Latest News Report: Calling Corporate Greed A “Contagious And Deadly Disease,” WNY Labor Unites Outside Jamestown For A ‘Solidarity Rally’ In Support Of Striking RHI Monofrax Workers).  Michael Briggs is a Veteran Who Served in the Iraqi War and Who’s Worked at the Falconer Plant Since 2011.  He’s Represented by the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) and National Conference of Firemen and Oilers Local 266-F - an Affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  He Works Pouring Silica Sand Into Forms That are Used in the Company’s Process of Manufacturing Fusion Cast Refractories That are Primarily Used in the Glass Industry.  He and His Wife, Tyfeny (Who’s Employed as a Manager of a Local Fast Food Franchise in the Area), Have Two Sons – Age 5 and 11 – and a 7-Year-Old Daughter (Photo Above/Courtesy of the Briggs Family).  Briggs Contacted WNYLaborToday.com Late Last Week After He and His Wife Were Disappointed and Frustrated by the Jamestown’s Daily Newspaper’s Decision Not to Print a Letter That She Wrote to RHI Monfrax Management and Had Sent to the Publication.  According to Her Husband, the Newspaper Turned Down His Wife’s Request.  WNYLaborToday.com Has Reviewed Tyfeny Briggs’ Letter and Has Agreed to Print it in its Entirety On Your On-Line Labor Newspaper:

To RHI Monofrax:

This Whole Business of the Strike at RHI Monofrax Has Gone On for Far Too Long, With Both Sides Taking Jabs at Each Other.

RHI Feels They Have the Upper Hand Because They Have the Money to Carry This On for a While.

Well - if You Have That Much Money, Then Why Keep Fighting?

What’s a Few Dollars When You Have Annual Revenue of Two Billion Dollars a Year?

Seriously?

Are You That Greedy That You Refuse to Show Your Employees That They Mean Something to You?

By Doing What You’re Doing Right Now – You’re Telling the World You Could Care Less About Your Employees - That They are Nothing More Than the Dirt You Bang Off Your Shoes.

If I Was in Your Shoes, I Would Do Everything I Could to Show My Workers That They’re Appreciated, That I Care About Them and Their Families.

And - You Didn’t Get to Where You are by Yourselves.

It Took the Hard Work of Your Employees to Get You Where You are Today.

You’ll Never See a Suit and Tie Walking Out of Those (Plant’s) Doors Covered in Black Graphite.

No, You’ll See Hard-Working Dedicated Men and Women Walking Out Those Doors Filthy - From Head to Toe, to the Point of Being Unrecognizable, Walking Out After a 12-Hour Shift Only to Spend a Little Time With Their Families Because They’re So Exhausted, Just to Get Up and Do it Again the Next Day - To Fill Your Orders, to Put Way More Money in Your Pocket Than What’s Going Into Theirs.

A Few Years Back You Held an Open House and Told All Your Workers to Bring in Their Families to Show Them Around - to Show That You Cared About Them.

Where is That Care Now?  Or Was That All Just a Lie?

The Way You’re Acting Now is Disrespectful.

Then You Have the Nerve to Post Ads in the (Jamestown) Newspaper(s) Claiming to Have Excellent Benefits.

Ha!

If They Were So Excellent, Then Why are All Your Workers On Strike?

I Doubt You’ll Get Any Responses From Those Ads, Except for the Ill-Informed, Who -Hopefully - Will Be Reading This and Change Their Minds.

You Fail to Mention in Those Ads You’ve Posted That There’s Absolutely No One Who’s Experienced Enough to Train Them, That They Will be Working in an Extremely Hot Environment (3,000 Degrees to be Exact), That if You Don’t Have the Proper Training it’s Highly Dangerous, That They Will be Breathing in Silica Dust (If You Don’t Know What That Is Google It).

You Say the Union Workers are Being Unreasonable, But Take a Look in the Mirror.

I am a Wife of an RHI Monofrax Employee.

Your Bills are Paid, You Drive a Nice Shiny New Car, Your Cupboards are Full and I Bet Your Kids Will Have a Great Christmas This Year.

Now Us - On the Other Hand, I Make Just Enough to Pay the Rent Every Month - Nothing More.  

Our Vehicle is in Need of Repair to be Drivable. 

Our Cupboards are Far From Even Half Full and - Honestly - I Don’t Know What I’m Going to Tell My Kids When Santa Doesn’t Come to Our House This Year.

So Redo Your BEST and FINAL OFFER, and While You Are Writing it - Think About Being in Our Shoes.

Think About Those Dedicated Men and Women Who’ve Stood by You - Through Thick and Thin, When There Were Hardly Any Orders and They Had to be Laid-Off, Then Came Back When You Did Have the Orders, When They Could Have Gone Elsewhere for Work.

Think of Us - the Families of Your Workers, Who’ve Gone Without Seeing Our Loved Ones Very Much When They Were Working Those 12 Hour Days, Seven Days a Week.

Those Workers Who Risk Their Lives Going to Work for You, Every Day.

Now Please, Tell Me Who the Unreasonable One is?