STRIKE 2005

Daily Update - Local Lodge 2766

6 Dec 2005

Striking machinists ask Boeing to delay launch
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
By BRIAN LAWSON
Times Business Writer brianl@htimes.com

Union says replacements not qualified for work

Striking machinists at Boeing are asking NASA to delay the planned early 2006 launch of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, arguing that Boeing replacement workers are not qualified to handle the crucial work that remains.

The launch window extends from Jan. 11 through Feb. 14. The launch would take place at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where Boeing machinists have been on strike since Nov. 2. If the launch window is missed, the mission cannot launch until 2007.

About 1,500 machinists at Boeing plants in Huntsville, Decatur and two California sites are also on strike, saying Boeing's contract offer unfairly raises worker health care costs.

Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva said Boeing is responsible only for the third stage of a Lockheed Martin rocket. He said that the replacement workers are qualified and that their job is nearly completed.

Villanueva said that the third stage is on the ground and that the crane work lifting it to the top of the rocket will be performed by another party.

"When it gets a few inches away from touching the upper stage, Boeing workers will do the final step of that integration (mating) to the upper stage," he said.

Robert Wood, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents the striking workers, said NASA had told the union that no more replacement workers would be used at Cape Canaveral, but the union has since learned replacement workers will continue on the project.

"The personnel currently working on this project do not meet Air Force requirements for hazardous operations such as cranes, tools and test equipment," Wood said. "This is an out-of-the-norm spacecraft, and the most dangerous part of Boeing's work is yet to come.

"The only technicians with the knowledge, certification and experience required are standing outside the gates."

Three other Boeing launches have been delayed because of the strike.

Boeing said that no new talks with the union are scheduled and that the company has no plans to change its contract offer.

"Both Lockheed Martin and NASA have been involved in every aspect of the work by our employees," Villanueva said. "They have approved our plan and use of our people, all through the process."

The strike affects about 300 workers from Boeing's Decatur plant and the jobs of some 185 workers, including some nonunion workers, in Huntsville.