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AHF workers vote to strike

Hardwood plant employees reject contract by 93% vote

The Inter-Mountain photos by Haley Gordon Hundreds of AHF employees cheer as the contract proposed by the company is voted down on Sunday afternoon. The employees will remain on strike until AHF agrees to renegotiate with Teamsters Local 175, the representative union group.

ELKINS — On Sunday afternoon at Elkins High School, 93% of the AHF Products hardwood plant’s employees voted against the proposed contract renewal offered by the company and all are now on strike.

The Beverly plant employs approximately 500 local residents and is a subsidiary of American Industrial Partners, who purchased the plant from Armstrong Flooring in late 2018.

George Scott, a 27-year employee at the plant and a member of the employee negotiation committee, said after the vote that AHF’s proposal was “ridiculous” and “unacceptable.”

“We hope that the company will get back to the table as quick as possible and start working on the differences between us. There’s some pretty big gaps there between what they’re wanting and what we’re wanting,” Scott said.

“For them to ask for even more is just ridiculous, and to go backwards is unacceptable, completely unacceptable.”

Luke Farley, left, and Ken Hall of the Teamsters Local 175 union group address nearly 400 AHF employees at Elkins High School on Sunday afternoon after the majority of the group voted against AHF’s upcoming contract.

In November of 2019, AHF Products held a ribbon cutting to honor the new 85,000-square foot expansion to the Beverly plant, which was expected to add up to 50 new jobs within the facility.

“When AHF took over, it felt like the relationship between the employees and the company just started growing further and further apart. There were a lot of things that I thought were heading in a good direction, up until the point where AHF took over and then you could just feel the divide growing,” he said.

Teamsters Local 175, the union group representing AHF employees, worked with a group of AHF veterans of more than 20 years to attempt to negotiate the terms of the contract with the company before the official vote Sunday.

Ken Hall, president of the Local 175 chapter, told The Inter-Mountain that AHF had refused to meet for negotiations in December or January, leaving both parties to attempt to reach an agreement shortly before the previous contract expired on Saturday.

“The whole process with the company has been very difficult,” Kathy Mahoney, an employee of 22 years, said. “We sat many hours waiting on a reply from them.”

The final proposed contract from AHF promised employees a one-time bonus of $1,100 and an hourly pay increase of 45 cents. In addition to the monetary increases, the contract would have also frozen pension plans and increased health insurance costs.

“The health insurance not only is important to us, it’s important to our families,” Mahoney said. With a proposed 92% increase over the next three years, some employees could have paid as much as $459 per month for the family insurance plan.

On Sunday, 369 AHF employees voted against the contract, with only 26 voting in favor. “We’re going to contact the company to see if they’re willing to come back to the table and be more reasonable,” Hall said.

“I would say, very clearly, the ball is in their court at this time. If they want to be reasonable, then we’re willing to sit back down,” he said. “We don’t want this to happen, we don’t want a work stoppage, but we’re not going to tolerate this company trying to jam an offer like this down our members’ throats.”

“It’s just a total slap in the face to the senior people. We help put them where they’re at today, as far as the product they have out there to make their money,” Mahoney said.

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