Steelworkers Ratify Acument Severance

John Wolz

United Steelworkers” Ontario ratified a one-year agreement with Acument Global Technologies for severance and benefit protection in advance of the plant”s anticipated phased closure later this year\, Canada NewsWire reported.
The agreement will provide two weeks pay per year of service to a maximum of 52 weeks and continues benefits for the 63 employees for four months following each employee”s layoff.
“This plant, which makes fasteners for the automotive industry, has been a long-time employer in the community,” Canadian UAW director Wayne Fraser told Canada NewsWire. “Some employees have more than 30 years service. Although the severance package is decent, it does not replace the good-paying unionized jobs that will be lost to the community. It is another in a long and growing list of job losses in Ontario.”
Fraser commented that Acument opened severance negotiations in advance unlike other area companies “which sneaked out of town in the middle of the night, leaving employees to be greeted by a padlocked plant the morning after.” �2008 FastenerNews.com