Originally Posted by PeaEye

So what happened with the unions in New Haven? I hadn't heard about that, would be interested in knowing the story. I just saw the results.

There are quite a few articles on it if you Google around a bit. The way I understood it at the time, Olin/FNH had to close down production for a certain amount of time before entering into a new licensing agreement with BACO. It was all orchestrated to kill off any labor contract and agreements with the unionized labor force at New Haven. To my knowledge, the South Carolina plant that produces the M70 is non-union. Olin ran into the same problem with union labor with its Ammunition plant in Illinois. Olin eventually sold that off as well in 2007.

Cerberus/Remington/Marlin is doing the exact same thing as we speak, re: union labor contracts/plants.

This quote is from the Wiki Page
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Labor costs continued to rise, and a prolonged and bitter strike in 1979�1980 convinced Olin that firearms could no longer be produced profitably in New Haven. Therefore in December 1980 the plant was sold to its employees, incorporated as the U.S. Repeating Arms Company, together with a license to make Winchester arms. Olin retained the Winchester ammunition business.

When U.S. Repeating Arms went bankrupt in 1989 it was acquired by a French holding company, then sold to an arms making cartel sponsored by the Belgian Herstal Group, which also owns gun makers Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal (FN) and Browning Arms Company.

On January 16, 2006 U.S. Repeating Arms announced it was closing the New Haven, Connecticut, plant where Winchester rifles and shotguns were produced for 140 years.[4] Along with the closing of the plant, the Model 94 rifle (the descendant of the original Winchester rifle), Model 70 rifle and Model 1300 shotgun would be discontinued.
[edit] Revival

On August 15, 2006, Olin Corporation, owner of the Winchester trademarks, announced that it had entered into a new license agreement with Browning[5] to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns, though not at the closed Winchester plant in New Haven. The production of Model 1885 falling block action, Model 1892 and Model 1886 lever action rifles are produced under licensed agreement by Miroku Corp. of Japan and imported back to United States by Browning. [6]

In 2008 Fabrique Nationale announced that it would produce Model 70 rifles at its plant in Columbia, SC. In the summer of 2010 Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal (FN) resumed production of the Winchester model 1894 and the evolution of the Winchester 1300, now called the Winchester SXP