Machinists vote to strike at Bombardier Learjet

Kansas.com ^ | Oct. 06, 2012 | Molly McMillin

[KeyLargo]

Posted on Sat, Oct. 06, 2012

Machinists vote to strike at Bombardier Learjet By Molly McMillin The Wichita Eagle

Bombardier Learjet’s hourly workforce will walk off the job Monday after Machinists union members rejected the company’s contract offer and voted to strike.

Union members voted Saturday 79 percent in favor of rejecting the company’s proposal of a five-year contract, which offered significant increases in health care costs and low general wage increases, and 79 percent in favor of a strike.

Strikers will begin walking the picket line at 12:01 a.m. Monday, when the current three-year contract expires.

The company said in a statement it will work toward minimizing disruption to its production lines, its customers and the community. Neither side would predict when negotiations might resume.

The union, Local Lodge 639, represents about 825 hourly workers at the Learjet plant in west Wichita.

It’s the second strike in the plant’s history. The first was in 2006, when the Machinists struck for three weeks.

[rktman]

So, are the Toronto workers union types as well? Never did think it was a good idea to go on strike when the economy sucks (but not according to the “one”) and the plant operators have options to move your work somewhere else and leave you to shore up the unemployment numbers. I’ve been in unions, not in unions and supervised union workers. Prefer NOT union types. The hard over ones have a strange mind set once they are firmly in place and no longer in control of their destiny. The soviets called it collectivism for a reason. Fair share etc.......................