NEW YORK — Averting a threatened strike, the manufacturing employees of Malden Mills Industries approved; three-year contract for a total 7 percent raise.
The pact, which covers about 450 workers at the Lawrence, Mass.-based firm, increases employees’ contributions to their health insurance premiums. The higher insurance cost had been a sore spot with the workers, who are members of the UNITE HERE union, and had prompted them to reject earlier offers and threaten a strike.
Voting on the new contract closed Thursday night.
“Our company has a long tradition of corporate responsibility to our employees,’’ Malden chief executive officer Michael Spillane said in a statement. “This contract maintains that tradition by respecting the needs of our workers while keeping us competitive in an increasingly global economy.’’
Union officials did not return calls for comment Friday.
Nine years ago, Malden’s primary manufacturing facilities burned down and the company won accolades for keeping its employees on the payroll while it rebuilt. Although that provided a bonanza of goodwill, it also set the stage for the polyester fleece maker’s 2001 bankruptcy filing, from which it emerged in October 2003.