BARDSTOWN, Ky. — Heaven Hill members of local 23D enter week four of their strike Monday.
Local 23D President Matt Aubrey said the union believes the contract, "makes cuts to overtime and threatens to divide its workers with unclear and potentially unfair scheduling."
For more than 22 days, more than 400 members have held the picket line. They go without insurance or income from Heaven Hill. The wait is weighing on Bardstown families.
"My son had an incident last week where I actually had to take him to the doctor," Ashley Walsh said. She explained his school called to let her know he was sick and she had to go to the doctor without insurance.
She described one cost adding on top of another, all unexpected. The single mother of two said she'd pay anything to take care of her kids. "I'm telling you right now, they're my world," she said
To make money as she waits for the strike to end, Walsh took a job working the graveyard shift at another company.
Still, she makes schedules for the picket line; hundreds of other members who are carrying similar problems from the same strike.
"It's stressful," Brittany Spalding said, holding onto her sister's child, standing next to her own.
Brittany's sister, also on strike, is seven months pregnant and caught COVID. So, Brittany has been watching her nephew David until her sister finishes quarantine. "We've been together, and it's been rough," she said.
Brittany has a new job lined up as the strike continues on. She starts Monday but would prefer to be back at Heaven Hill.
The company sent out a letter to members recently, with a copy of the same contract they voted down in September. The letter explained some possible misconceptions from the contract. It said current members would not be required to change to non-traditional schedules. But members, including Ashley Walsh, say they don't trust that the letter truly explains the content of the contract.
Instead, she said, she'll continue with the strike until she knows for sure that the contract won't take away time with her kids. She to teach them a lesson in the process, "that if you fight for what's right, it'll work out in the long run."
Since day one, union members have said they'll strike for "as long as it takes." More than three weeks later, they're still out at multiple locations 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.
► Contact reporter Tom Lally at TLally@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter.
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