STRIKE 2005

Daily Update - Local Lodge 2766

19 Nov 2005

Boeing blames launch delays on machinists
Saturday, November 19, 2005
By BRIAN LAWSON
Times Business Writer brianl@htimes.com

Union complains that prep work for Pluto mission not up to par

The strike by Boeing machinists at locations in Huntsville, Decatur, California and Florida has led to launch delays for three different missions and has spurred union complaints about preparations for a January mission aimed at Pluto.

Boeing machinists at U.S. launch sites at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Cape Canaveral in Florida are among some 1,000 machinists who went on strike Nov. 2, and their absence has led to schedule delays, Boeing said.

Robert Villanueva, a California-based Boeing spokesman, said three planned launches, including two different weather satellite missions and a national security satellite, had been tentatively scheduled for late 2005 and have now been delayed. The missions had faced previous technical delays.

Villanueva said the decisions to delay reflect Boeing's desire to ensure its customers were in "100 percent agreement" about preparations for launch amid the strike. Missions include the planned launch from Florida of a GOES-N satellite on a Boeing Delta IV rocket, which will provide data for weather monitoring, and the launch on a Boeing Delta II rocket of NASA's Calipso-CloudSat mission. It will be used to study how clouds and airborne particles affect Earth's weather, climate and air quality.

The planned Delta IV launch of a National Reconnaissance Office satellite would mark the first Delta IV launch from Vandenberg, Villanueva said.

The machinists' union workers do a number of hands-on jobs in preparation for Boeing launches.

NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, for which Boeing is building a modified third stage for a Lockheed rocket, is scheduled to launch in January. The Pluto mission is managed by Marshall Space Flight Center.

But the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union has complained that Boeing workers handling prep work for that mission are not sufficiently qualified and pose a potential danger to that mission.

Bob Wood, a union spokesman, said the work at Cape Canaveral is critical to a successful mission. Wood said the Boeing workers currently performing tasks have been cited twice by the U.S. Air Force range safety department at Cape Canaveral. Wood said such citations are very rare and that NASA has been unresponsive to safety concerns raised by the union.

Bruce Buckingham, a NASA spokesman at Kennedy Space Center, said Boeing is handling only one phase of the rocket. Buckingham said, given NASA's long experience with Boeing and its performance over time, the agency is confident "all issues will be addressed satisfactorily."

The machinists' strike includes jobs of some 185 workers at Boeing's Huntsville plant and 300 jobs at Boeing's Decatur rocket plant. The union contends Boeing's contract offer, which workers rejected before voting to strike, makes their health care costs too high and changes eligibility rules for retiree medical care.

Boeing has said the contract offer is generous and that the company is looking to reduce its exposure to long-term health care costs.