Teamsters remain on Nichols picket line

Members of Teamsters Local 371 remained on the picket line today after walking off their jobs Friday at Nichols Aluminum when negotiations on a new contract reached an impasse.

The union went on strike at 4:30 p.m. Friday, said Thomas Brackmann, president of the west Davenport manufacturer.

The two sides said they have not communicated since Friday, and no plans for coming back to the negotiating table are scheduled.

“We have not heard anything. We have said we were willing to go back to the table, and they know that,” said Howard Spoon, Local 371 president. “We are willing to go back to the table any day. I am thinking the company is waiting to see how long my members will be out there.”

“We have heard nothing from the union since they decided to go out at 4:30 p.m. Friday,” Brackmann said. “We would find the time so we could sit down and talk. We are certainly for an agreeable settlement. We have been working on it since Oct. 6, and we are not going to quit now.”

The contract between the company and the union expired Nov. 15, and union members had been working without a contract since, Brackmann said.

Spoon said one of the biggest sticking points in the negotiations is health insurance.

Local 371 represents 254 Nichols employees. The company is a division of Quanex Building Products.

The company has two separate plants in west Davenport.

The company remelts aluminum scrap to produce coiled sheet, which is sold to customers who fabricate it into final products. Brackmann said two-thirds of the volume produced is eventually turned into building materials — particularly for the housing industry. Its aluminum, which it sells bare or coated, is used to make products such as gutters, downspouts, window screen frames, soffits, fascia and trim sheet.