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| New shop stewards at ATK in Lake City, MO attend training at the IAM’s William Winpisinger Training Center. |
Working conditions at defense contractor ATK’s Lake City, MO plant got so poor that Carolyn Treffer, a 33-year ATK employee, realized a union was the only way things were going to improve.
Treffer and her co-workers make ammunition for the U.S. military. They’ve always taken pride in their work, but just like anybody else, they want to be treated fairly on the job.
“The reason we voted a union in is because the way the conditions got, the way management treated people,” said Treffer.
Treffer recently joined 34 of her coworkers for shop steward training at the IAM’s William Winpisinger Center. They’re learning the skills they’ll need to improve low morale on the shop floor.
WATCH: “ATK Planning Program”
“I think that through this union, we can not only make things better for ourselves, we can actually improve things at the company as a whole,” said Warren Peery, a shop steward at ATK and one of many new IAM Local 778 members.
Building on the foundation of their first contract, ATK workers will have a voice with the IAM.
“They will have every resource available to them that the IAM has,” said IAM Midwest Territory General Vice President Phil Gruber. “I would just like them to know that myself, the International President, the General Secretary-Treasurer and all of my colleagues on the Executive Council are fully committed to bringing justice to the workplace at ATK.”
View photos from the ATK Shop Steward training here.
