On Wabtec’s second-quarter earnings call with investors yesterday, the company was forced to address the ongoing strike by members of UE Locals 506 and 618 at the company’s locomotive plant in Erie, PA.
Chief Financial Officer John Olin admitted that “margins were down a little bit more than we expected. The key driver of that … was the inefficiencies we're experiencing at our facility in Erie behind the strike.”
In response to a question from another analyst, Olin explained, “we don't expect any impact on revenue for the year, but it does have a cost. And we had cost … in the second quarter, but we'll also have some costs in the third quarter.”
The strike began on June 22, after the members of the two locals overwhelmingly rejected the company’s last offer; only the first eight days of the strike occurred during the second quarter. The strike has now been going on for 36 days.