European Unions Call on Honeywell CEO to End Illinois Lockout

Global Union Support Mounts in 11-month dispute at Illinois Uranium Plant

PITTSBURGH, May 13, 2011 - The United Steelworkers (www.usw.org/ ) (USW) today released a
strong statement by European union leaders calling on Honeywell Corp.'s CEO
David Cote to immediately end the 11-month-long lockout of 228 workers at the
company's uranium processing plant of USW Local 7-669 (usw7-669.com/)
in Metropolis, IL.

(Logo: photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080131/DC12982LOGO)

The letter is from the top officers of three big European labor
federations to Honeywell's CEO and states: "We call on you to take all
measures to ensure that this lockout be ended immediately, with all workers
welcomed back to their plant without reprisals, and with full agreement of
their union the United Steelworkers." It was sent May 12 by the European
Metalworkers Federation (usw7-669.com/) (EMF), European Mine,
Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (www.emcef.org/news8.asp), and
the European Federation of Public Service Unions (www.epsu.org/)
(EPSU).

In a side statement accompanying the EMF communique, influential top
representatives of European Honeywell workers - Michael Petersen, Honeywell
European Works Council (EWC) President; and Ian Tonks, National Officer of
the union UNITE (www.unitetheunion.org/) in the United Kingdom,
stated:

"We believe the safety of the plant has been compromised on several
occasions by the present temporary workforce. We find these actions totally
unacceptable and we are dismayed at the inflexible attitude of Honeywell
management towards its long standing employees of Metropolis."

Both Petersen of Germany and Tonks of England have recently visited in
the U.S. to confront company officials with their responsibility to resolve
the dispute. The EWC represents 30,000 Honeywell workers in Europe.

USW International President Leo Gerard
(www.usw.org/our_union/international_executive_board?id=0001) had
previously warned the company that if they didn't get serious about sporadic
bargaining for a new agreement in the lockout that began Jun. 28, 2010, "We
would begin to advocate to our global union allies the disrespect that
Honeywell is showing to our members and disregard they have for the
Metropolis community."

Gerard is also a leader of a trans-Atlantic global union called Workers
Uniting (www.workersuniting.org/), formed by the USW
(www.usw.org/)and UNITE (www.unitetheunion.org/) that has a
combined 3 million workers in the U.K. and North America.

The European labor leaders, who together represent 16 million workers in
many countries, declared in the letter: "Considering the height of current
concern about safety and security in the nuclear industry and its supply
chain, particularly after the disaster at Fukushima in Japan, we are deeply
concerned about the situation in Metropolis."

The European leaders wrote, "We are therefore appalled by the reported
findings of the U.S. nuclear watchdog, the National Regulatory Commission
(www.nrc.gov/) (NRC), and the federal Occupational Safety and Health
authorities, of uncontrolled releases of toxic chemicals, breaches in safety
procedure and training."

They added, "Nuclear facilities must be run by highly trained and skilled
workers within companies ensuring their workforces' health and safety, a high
level of safety for the wider community and full transparency in the
treatment and processing of highly dangerous materials. Independent oversight
by public authorities must be guaranteed."

The Honeywell-Metropolis plant is operating during the lockout with
inexperienced temporary workers to convert uranium for use in commercial
nuclear reactors. According to a USW report issued early in the lockout, up
to 1.12 million pounds of hydrofluoric acid at a time were in use at
Honeywell Metropolis Works. Honeywell has acknowledged that a release of just
16 percent of this amount of hydrofluoric acid could impact as many as
128,000 people in the surrounding 25 mile radius.

Leading the USW delegation to Europe was Dan Flippo
(www.usw.org/our_union/international_executive_board?id=0020), Director
of USW District 9 in Birmingham, who represents other U.S. units of Honeywell
and is chair of the union's labor council at the company. He was accompanied
in this past week's European meetings with USW Local 7-669 locked out members
John Paul Smith and Steven Lech of Metropolis.

A copy of the signed EMF letter to Honeywell is here
(www.usw.org/), and updates on the lockout are at
USW Local 7-669/ (usw7-669.com/).

    Contact: Dan Flippo; +1-205-631-0137; +1-205-213-6464; dflippo@usw.org
    John Paul Smith; +1-618-638-7894; jsmith@usw7-669.com

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