Armstrong, Union, Agree on Three-Year Contract

Lancaster, PA, Oct. 3, 2008--Union negotiators and Armstrong World Industries agreed Friday on a new three-year contract covering five Armstrong flooring plants, including its Lancaster site, according to Lancaster.online.

The tentative agreement was forged just hours before the current contract between the company and the United Steelworkers was to expire.

Hourly employees represented by the union would get annual raises of 4 percent, 3.5 percent and 3.5 percent, union officials said.

Pension benefits would improve by $4 per month per year of service. Employee contributions to health insurance premiums would increase "modestly," they said.

Union officials said the accord was reached about 6 a.m. today after an all-day and all-night marathon bargaining session of 22 hours.

That nipped the 7 a.m. expiration at the first of the plants whose contracts were up today.

At the Lancaster floor plant, the current contract was to expire at 11 p.m. Other plants covered by the contract are in Jackson, Miss., Macon, Ga., Mobile, Ala., and Beaver Falls.