Workers at Wendt Corporation demonstrated outside of the facility on Walden Avenue, protesting after they say 10 employees were laid off on Friday.

The workers are members of Ironworkers Local Union 567, which formed at the plant last summer. The union currently represents 31 employees.

The workers say they want a fair contract from Wendt but contract negotiations have gone nowhere in the previous seven months.

They’re asking for better wages and a safer work environment with more job security.  Wendt makes recycling and shredding equipment for junkyards and scrap metal yards.  The workers say the layoffs are a result of the union’s efforts.                            

Wendt provided a statement saying the layoffs have been planned for some time now. 

The statement from Wendt also notes that some of the demonstrators are not employees.

Their workers have the right to demonstrate, the company says, but Wendt is “extremely disappointed with the lack of truthfulness of the claims of the Union accompanying these demonstrations. We are further astounded that any public official or clergy would take any ‘side’ in this situation without having reached out to the company to ask for Wendt’s perspective on these matters.”