(NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK) – An early morning protest held today (Friday, March 24th) outside the main entrance to the Washington Mills Abrasives Manufacturing Plant in Niagara Falls by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 237 brought about immediate and positive results, as Union Representatives subsequently met with the plant’s vice president, who is moving forward on making sure electrical work currently being done by Non-Union Workers is flipped over to a Union Job.

“(The plant’s vice president) is a ‘man of his word’ and ‘the ball’s in our court now.’  All we want is a ‘fair shot’ (at the work),” IBEW Local 237 Business Manager Russ Quarantello told WNYLaborToday.com just hours after the protest, and after he and Niagara-Orleans AFL-CIO Central Labor Council President Jim Briggs - who also serves as United Steelworkers (USW) District 4 Sub-District Director, and Ironworkers Local 9 Business Manager Scott Brydges, met with the unnamed plant vice president.

A group of 100 Union Members and Union supporters from a number of other Public and Private Sector Unions, as well as representatives from the Niagara County Democratic Party and Elected Officials, joined IBEW Local 237 Members at the main entrance to the plant on Buffalo Avenue. 

There were “so many in such a small area” that access to the plant’s main entrance was “slowed down,” Quarantello said. 

“There were ‘so many people there’ that we were ‘four abreast and three-to-four car widths wide, so everybody had a hard time maneuvering and getting in there,’” he added.

The protestors took action after the company hired a group of Non-Union Electrical Workers, who are remodeling office space inside the plant, which is a Union Facility with its Members represented by the USW.

The company’s vice president pulled up to the main entrance in his car while the protest was occurring and was “not too happy” about what was going on, Quarantello told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.  “He got out of his car and he was ‘furious’ with me, but we talked – which wasn’t a ‘good’ conversation, and he asked that we come into his office to talk some more.”

Joined by Briggs and Brydges, Quarantello said he was impressed “with the integrity” of the plant’s vice president - “who was no pushover.” 

The vice president then spoke to the construction manager and moments after Quarantello, Briggs and Brydges were walking back to their cars, Quarantello’s phone rang. 

“He asked us to come back to his office and he told us if our (Union) contractor could ‘match the cost’ (the Union would get the work).  We then shook hands and left,” Quarantello said.

The IBEW Local 237 Business Manager also make it a point to thank Niagara-Orleans Council President Briggs for his involvement in the protest.

“I ‘look up to’ Jim Briggs,” Quarantello told WNYLaborToday.com.  “‘All I think of is Labor when I see him.’  He ‘stands up and fights just as hard for his people as he does for all Unions.’”

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: The Photos That Appear With This Labor News Story Are Courtesy of Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation Staff Member Chris Borgatti.