$200,000 Back pay due for 400 Milwaukee, Wi (IBEW) workers of Bay View castings company

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2008/03/10/daily29.html

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 2:07 PM CDT

Nearly 400 current and former employees of Aluminum Casting & Engineering Co. are eligible for back wages stemming from the withholding of pay raises during a 1995 union organizing campaign.

Employees of the company, also known as Ace Co., are eligible to collect as much as $1,250 each in back pay, according to the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers union, which led the organizing campaign. The back-pay fund, which is in the custody of the National Labor Relations Board, totals about $200,000.

Union officials said the NLRB has had difficulties contacting eligible workers. At this point, only 160 of the 381 eligible workers have received checks. Many of the workers have moved and some may be deceased.

Only about 10 percent of the workers who were employed at the company in 1995 remain on the job, said Carl Rosen, president of the union's Chicago-based Western Regional Council. Unclaimed money will be returned to the company.

"The union believes the back pay award falls short of what workers are legally entitled to and the union will soon file an appeal for additional back pay," said Bob Rudek, president of the Electrical Workers union Local 1111, during a press conference Wednesday at the local's headquarters on Milwaukee's south side.

FULL story at link.