A glance at the Lockheed contract offer to the machinists union

Posted Monday, Jun. 25, 2012 0 comments  Print Reprints
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By Bob Cox

rcox@star-telegram.com

Machinists union officials said Monday that the new contract offer they will present to the members of IAM Local 776 on Thursday is an improvement over the company's original offer, but they declined to characterize it as a victory.

Union members will meet at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Cowtown Coliseum to vote on the contract offer. Here is a summary of the agreement:

Download Summary of Lockheed Martin - Mediated

The proposed agreement hammered out in four days of mediated talks that ended last Saturday includes the following key provisions:

-- A four year term. The contract will expire in 2016.

-- A base pay increase of 3 percent immediately, followed by annual raises of 2 1/2 percent in both 2013 and 2014 and a 3 percent increase in 2015.

-- The signing bonus was $2,000, down from $3,000 in the original offer.

-- There will also be an up-front cost-of-living payment of $1,600.

-- There will be a third healthcare benefits plan option, an Aetna point-of-service plan that union officials say will have lower deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for members and out-of-network provisions to cover family members away from home.

-- Pension benefits for existing employees are improved over the current contract.

-- There will be no traditional defined benefit pension for new hires, a key reason the union rejected the initial contract offer. In lieu of the pension, for new hires Lockheed will make annual payments based on a percentage of wages into an IAM administered 401k plan. The company payments will be 3 percent, increasing to 4 percent after an employee has worked three years.

-- Employees can claim two weeks (80 hours) of previously earned vacation time as used during the strike.

New employees will also be eligible for the company's existing 401k plan.

Further details are available at the District Lodge 776 website.

"We got the health plan. That is big," Machinists spokesman Robert Wood said of the revised contract proposal. "There is more money in this plan, the total value of the package."

Read more here: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/sky_talk/2012/06/quick-look-at-lockheed-machinists-contract-offer.html#storylink=cpy

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