ULA Machinists Go on Strike
Nearly 600 machinists working at United Launch Alliance (ULA) are on strike against the company after they voted down a three-year contract offer from the company on Sunday.
The machinists, who are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), are employed at ULA facilities in Decatur, Ala.; Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla,; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
“It’s unfortunate that a company who makes a living off the backs of tax payer dollars would offer a substandard package for a highly skilled workforce,” said IAM Western Territory General Vice President Gary Allen prior to the vote. The union had recommended machinists reject the contract.
In a statement, ULA called the offer fair, competitive and in the best interest of the company and its employees.
“We’re disappointed that the IAM members rejected ULA’s last, best and final offer and voted to strike,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and chief executive officer. “We believe our proposed contract is very competitive with other companies. Importantly, ULA’s final offer contributes to ULA’s long term viability in an increasingly competitive launch business environment.”
Union officials disagreed.
“The best-case scenario for both sides is when we are able to come to an agreement at the bargaining table. Unfortunately, in this case, that didn’t happen,” said Chief of Staff and Aerospace Negotiator Jody Bennett. “Although the contract does include some improvements, it just wasn’t enough for a group of working men and women who have made ULA the absolute safest company in the aerospace industry. Their offer did not clearly mirror the decades of hard work put forth by these machinists members.”
ULA’s said it would implement strike contingency plans and continue to operate at all three locations.
18 responses to “ULA Machinists Go on Strike”
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On another forum, I recently expressed the opinion that ULA’s machinists would probably ratify the offered contract despite the rejection recommendation of their leadership as they had done before in 2015. Silly me, it would seem. To paraphrase an old saying, it looks like no one is ever going to go broke underestimating the intelligence of American organized labor.
While I don’t have enough details for an opinion on this strike, it made me think of the section in Bormans’ book Countdown where Eastern went bankrupt partially due to unions. Not that ULA is that close to the wire of course.
It’s easy for management to blame Unions for the failure of a business, but,
unions are usually a sign of a badly lead business. When the workforce is alienated, underpaid and irritable, they will organize and demand better wages and
benefits.
A guy making $5 Million per year blaming a machinist making $27 for the troubles of the business should probably spend more time looking in the mirror and less time, looking down.
Poor management will certainly take a business down as well. The union people I’ve known were not underpaid. Many were underperforming, though I don’t know in this case. If management and labor both are alienated and underperforming, the business is doomed, unless it has a captive market of course.
Underpaid people should leave for an organization that properly compensates them.
It’s one of the major failings of unions to fight a change in work scope of the worker. Even when the workers desire it. Both sides of the union management divide have a lot of self reflection to go through with no sign either side is willing to do so.
When I swept floors at a tool and die company in Clifton NJ in the mid 80’s the union demanded quality work from the line machinists and quality pay out of management. The line machinists for the most part had a house two cars, and sported 3 kids or so at home. The shop was exported to China in the late 90’s. When I worked the summer of ’86 with a street paving operation the union encouraged sloth and narrow work descriptions. That firm is still in operation last time I looked in 2010. Good honest work rewarded in America.
Unions can be a force for good as in your experience in NJ. Unfortunately, your second example is far more common in my experience and in the anecdotal stories I’ve heard. IMO, Quality pay is not a problem for quality work. It is a problem if there is a mismatch.
I think that’s a good truism. The mismatch is a problem.
I’m guessing it was more management than union leadership demanding quality work. I’m also guessing that the street paving company is owned by the brother-in-law of a city alderman.
Yeah, because union leadership always sucks right? It’s easy to demand quality work. Anyone can do that. No real leadership required there. To pony up on your requirements to pay for that quality work is another thing all together. And given that the owners/management shipped the operation to China and I guess that speaks for itself about the quality of the leadership of the owners/managers now doesn’t it?
They are just b— hurt because the real good talent is over at SpaceX (pushing limits) and now Blue (getting good compensation). This leaves a combination of loyal long timers and dregs behind, which could be a very unpleasant environment.
“Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, …, Blue Sky Mine”.
So are SpaceX and Blue’s machinists in Unions too?
At this point it doesn’t matter if they are or not, from what I have heard, their workers find the work satisfying and that it opens up opportunity and chances to learn, so they will accept less pay, on SpaceX’s side the fact that some bonuses are in the form of SpaceX stock options doesn’t hurt, that’s the key, workers have to be happy with what they are doing and how they are being treated and compensated and you won’t have problems with Unions
At SpaceX there are problems in the workforce
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/0…
No problems would be having trouble maintaining staffing, they have no problems there
This was a class action nuisance suit by some ex-employees. It was settled out of court. Each plaintiff got, if I recall, a bit less than a grand. The small law firm that ran the suit got a seven-figure payday – about $1.4 million if memory serves. That seems to be a pretty typical outcome for class actions these days.
No.
Look out for tacks in turbopumps…