Vincent Bach on boycott list

There’s another company name on the AFL-CIO’s National List of Endorsed Boycotts: Vincent Bach.

In February the UAW requested a national boycott of Vincent Bach, part of Conn-Selmer Inc.’s Band Division, the leading manufacturer and distributor of band and orchestral instruments for professional, amateur and student use.

More than 200 UAW Local 364 members have been on strike since last April at the musical instrument factory in Elkhart, Ind.

These highly skilled makers of trumpets, saxophones and other instruments went on strike after Conn-Selmer demanded a reduction in wages, job security and health care benefits – and added replacement workers who crossed union picket lines to take their jobs.

The company threatened to outsource work to an unspecified Asian country, presumably China, where instruments could be manufactured at less than half of current production costs.

Conn-Selmer manufactures and distributes products under a variety of well-known names, including Vincent Bach brass, Selmer USA woodwinds and C.G. Conn brass, among many others.