FORT WORTH -- Striking assembly workers at Lockheed Martin walked the picket line in west Fort Worth on Monday, a day after rejecting a final contract offer from the company and without any move from either side to resume negotiations on a contract.
On a gorgeous spring day, union members picketed outside various entrances to the Lockheed complex, which builds the F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, hoping to influence public opinion and visitors doing business there.Spokesman for Lockheed and Machinists union Lodge 776 said they were not aware of any communications between their representatives aimed at restarting a dialogue that could lead to an early end to the walkout."The ball is in their [Lockheed's] court," Machinists spokesman Bob Wood said, adding that union members had spoken very clearly Sunday by overwhelmingly rejecting the company's contract offer by a 9-1 ratio.Union members said they strongly oppose a company proposal to eliminate a defined-benefit pension plan for new hires and to reduce health insurance options to an HMO and a plan with higher deductibles and co-payments.The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers filed two new unfair labor practice charges against Lockheed with the National Labor Relations Board, the second and third since negotiations ended last week.One charge accuses the company of distributing printed materials with details of the proposed contract before the vote that implied union endorsement. The other accuses Lockheed of trying to intimidate union members and officers by setting up a surveillance camera on a stand directly across the street from the union lodge at 7711 Clifford St.Lockheed spokesman Joe Stout said the company had not received any notification of the charges and had bargained and communicated with employees in good faith.He called it "normal procedure" to set up observation posts around the plant during a strike. "Those went up last week," he said.Martha Kinard, regional director for the labor board, said that her office "will move very expeditiously" to investigate the charges but that the process could take weeks.The 3,600-plus union-represented workers at Lockheed primarily work on the production lines for the F-35 and F-16. Union members also picketed Monday at Edwards Air Force Base in California and Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.The strike has the potential to disrupt not just F-35 production but flight testing as well. Lockheed has 132 employees at Edwards working on the F-35 flight test program and 140 at Patuxent River.Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office in Washington, said program officials hope Lockheed and the union "will come to a satisfactory agreement that sustains the progress the F-35 production and flight test program has shown over the past year."The potential impact on the program is "being assessed," DellaVedova said, but flight testing will continue and the government will remain neutral "as the parties resolve their contract issues in a mutually beneficial manner."Lockheed has said it will keep the plant open during a strike, using a contingency plan to meet its commitments to customers. Lockheed employs about 15,000 people in Fort Worth.It's the first Machinists strike at Lockheed in Fort Worth since 2003, when the union members walked out for two weeks in a dispute over benefits.The pickets were mostly quiet Monday morning, with some occasionally shouting "Ain't no way." The strikers were respectful of other Lockheed workers, including nonunion workers and union workers with current contracts, who had to cross the picket lines to go to work."That's just the way it is," said Rick Longino, 59, laid off this year from a job as an office worker at the plant. Longino spent the early morning delivering iced tea, coffee, and hot dogs to the strikers.The union's sympathizers included Odin, a 3-year-old dog owned by Mike Ryan, a striking Machinist who said he's worked at the plant since 1978."He's a Heinz 57, a union-made Heinz 57," Ryan said, as Odin wandered around the lawn of the District Lodge 776 grounds just outside Lockheed's main gate, wearing a sweater with Machinists signs stapled to it.Like other striking workers, Ryan said he is prepared to stay out as long as it takes to get a better package of health and pension benefits.The strikers begin collecting $150 a week from the international union strike fund after their third week on strike but no compensation for the first two weeks.R.T. Rivas, 61, a striking assembler who said he's worked at the plant since 1986, said many workers socked as much money away as possible from working overtime to get ready for the strike."We're well-prepared," he said, as he carried a sign on the picket line at the main gate. "Everyone knew it was coming. We're going to stay out as long as it takes."Bob Cox, 817-390-7723Scott Nishimura, 817-390-7808Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
