(TONAWANDA, NEW YORK) – The Vice President of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6992 was struck by a car early today (Thursday, July 6th) during an informational picket that was held outside DuPont’s Tonawanda/Yerkes Plant – located just outside Buffalo, as Union Representatives continue to bargain a new contract to replace one that expired in June.

About 150 Workers and Union Supporters were taking part in the informational picket when a car attempted to enter the plant and allegedly first ran over the foot of Local 6992 Vice President Ken Eisenhuth and then “sideswiped” Eisenhuth, according to Local President Gary Guralny, which forced Eisenhuth to “fall over backwards, landing on his back and shoulders.” 

Eisenhuth was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but Guralny tells WNYLaborToday.com his injuries were “minor” and that Eisenhuth was “expected to report to work on Friday, with work restrictions” because of his injuries. 

There was no immediate information on the car’s driver or whether charges will be filed.

Meanwhile, Guralny told WNYLaborToday.com the USW will review the Western New York Company’s “best, last and final offer” that it received today during a scheduled bargaining session, before it “schedules another meeting to counter what we received today.”

An afternoon rally is scheduled for today, as well as another outside the plant on Friday morning.

USW Local 6992 represents 340 Workers at DuPont’s Yerkes Plant off River Road in Tonawanda where it manufactures Corian (which is used in the manufacturing of counter-tops) and Tedlar (which is used in the Airline Industry) Products – both of which are made with the use of toxic ingredients.

Local 6992’s current contract expired on June 18th, but an extension was agreed to two days earlier on June 16th – with a two-week cancellation, which the USW exercised today. 

“It ‘had been open-ended,’” Guralny said of the agreement, “but we’ve notified the company we are ‘terminating’ the extension, which will now expire” on Friday, July 14th.

The Union’s previous four-year contract was ratified back in June 2013. 

The USW and DuPont have had a history of rocky roads when it comes to contracts.

It initially took 15 years for the USW to negotiate its first Union Contract and more than one year to come to agreement on its now-expired four-year contract that replaced a previously expired four-year pact. 

The process was sped up by the Local 6992’s high-profile public campaign that exposed unsafe working conditions and toxic chemical exposure inside the plant. 

However, it does not seem as though DuPont has learned a lesson after the last go-around.

The company has now presented a new four-year deal with yearly wage increases of 1%, 1%, one-half-percent and one-half-percent, Guralny tells WNYLaborToday.com.

However, DuPont is “insisting” the right to contract out work that would be done by USW-represented Plant Employees, as well as institute a new Two-Tier Wage System that would cut new hires’ pay by 40%.

“Those are the ‘two big issues,’” Guralny told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.

“Today’s negotiations ‘did not go well’ because they are ‘insisting on the same language’ (to outsource and institute a new wage system),” Guralny said.  “They used our agreed-to extension as a ‘chance to talk to our Members about the company’s new plant in China.’  ‘Instead of using our ‘good faith’ opportunity, they told our Members that they ‘can’t compete’ (with wages here).’”

A number of area Unions participated in this morning’s rally outside the DuPont Plant, including the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Public Employees Federation (PEF) and representatives from the Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF), to name but a few. 

Representatives of the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ) also participated in the rally.

USW Local 6992 had already held two other informational rallies outside the plant before the ones that were scheduled for this morning and afternoon.  Guralny said more are planned, as well as a number of other public actions that he declined to talk about today.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: The photos that appear with the Labor News Report are courtesy of the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ) and Bill Jakobi, who serves as Greater Niagara United Way Labor Liaison for the Niagara-Orleans AFL-CO Central Labor Council.