Union workers John Bevel and Joe Rumberger are among those returning to work in January at Armstrong World Industries' Marietta ceiling plant after a nearly five-month lockout was ended Friday.
When all the votes were counted, one union leader walked into the crowded lobby of the Heritage Hotel on Friday afternoon and made an announcement:
"We're going back to work!" he said, as a few dozen workers from Marietta's Armstrong World Industries ceiling plant cheered. "And we're glad to have a job."
A nearly five-month lockout at the Armstrong Marietta facility came to an end Friday, with the 260 locked-out workers due to return to work in January.
A new three-year contract, covering June 1, 2011, through June 1, 2014, was ratified by the members of Unit 441 of United Steelworkers Local 285.
The vote total and full details of the contract were not disclosed, but both company and union officials expressed satisfaction with the vote.
Having the Marietta employees approve the new contract "allows us to end the lockout in a way mutually satisfactory to the company and the union," Armstrong spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson said Friday.
"The agreement is fair and responsible; it's a very competitive package that enables us to operate successfully in this economic climate and ensure the future health of the plant and our business.
"We are looking forward to our employees coming back to work."
United Steelworkers official Thomas Jones said outside the Centerville Road hotel after Friday afternoon's vote, "I'm just proud of what (the workers) did here, that they stood up and they fought back, and over the long haul I think it brought everybody closer together."
Negotiators for the company and the union had reached a tentative contract Tuesday, following a bargaining session that started in the morning.
The contract approved Friday included provisions that also had been in an earlier offer, in September, that the union members had rejected.
Those provisions are:
• Annual raises of 2.5 percent.
• $500 annually to help offset rising health care premiums and deductibles.
• And $400 contributions in the second and third years to employee 401(k) plans, plus an incentive bonus of $500 a year that will be paid out over three years, union leaders said.
Two other elements from an earlier Armstrong offer — a $1,000 ratification bonus and a $700 contribution to employee 401(k) plans in the first year — were not in the contract approved Friday, union officials said.
Armstrong had locked out the workers July 17 after USW Unit 441 failed to schedule a vote on a company contract offer by Armstrong's deadline.
Despite the lockout, Armstrong has continued to operate the Marietta plant, producing and shipping ceiling tiles. The site is staffed with temporary workers, salaried plant workers and salaried workers transferred in from other sites.
The workers are to be called back in blocks starting Jan. 9. All of the workers will be back to work by Jan. 25.
The majority of the 260 workers are Lancaster County residents, union leaders said.
Some union members who had just voted on the pact expressed unhappiness with it, but another was more philosophical.
"We didn't get everything we wanted, but we got a few things," said the worker, who asked to not be identified.
"And the way the economy is, we're just happy to be going back to work and getting our lives back in order."
