3,600 Sikorsky Aircraft workers go on strike

STRATFORD (AP) — Frustration over rising health care costs prompted nearly 3,600 Sikorsky Aircraft workers in Connecticut and Florida to walk out Monday.

Workers with Local 1150 of the Teamsters overwhelmingly rejected the contract and voted Sunday in favor of the strike, the company’s first since 1963. The union represents 3,500 workers at the helicopter-maker in Connecticut and 90 in Florida.

Chanting, “What do we want? Health Care! When do we want it? Now!” machinists, craftsmen, mechanics, assemblers and basic operations personnel were on the picket lines early Monday morning at the company’s Stratford headquarters and locations in West Haven, Bridgeport and Shelton.

Workers also walked out at Sikorsky’s Palm Beach County, Fla., facility, where tests are conducted on the Army’s next generation of helicopters.

“I thought that the offer was going to be better,” striker Renee Haydusky of Ansonia told WVIT-TV. “When it came down to it, this is how we voted.”

Sikorsky officials countered that they believed the contract was a good offer, considering it also included 3.5 percent pay raises in each year of the three-year deal, pension improvements and a $2,000 ratification bonus.

“Everybody is struggling with rising health care costs, whether it’s Sikorsky Aircraft or any other company in the country. We’re simply not immune to that,” Sikorsky spokesman Ed Steadham said. “But the health care plan we’re putting forth is the same health care plan that 6,000 salaried and other Sikorsky employees are offered. It’s a good health care plan.”

Negotiators for Local 1150 did not recommend that members ratify the agreement, which workers turned down by a vote of 2,045 to 1,072 Sunday.

Negotiators and the union’s secretary treasurer, Rocco Calo, cited a doubling of health care co-payments in the first year and a 15 percent increase over the next two years, according to the union’s Web site.

The proposed contract also would have raised prescription costs and doctor visit copays, “among other costly increases.”

“What people made the decision on was the medical package,” Calo said after Sunday’s vote. He added that workers would remain on strike “as long as it takes.” A call was left seeking comment with Harvey Jackson, the union president.

Steadham said the company plans to continue its 24-hour-a-day operations, despite the strike. He would not comment on whether replacement workers will eventually be needed if the walkout is prolonged.

“We’re not speculating. We’ve got a contingency plan. We’re rolling up our sleeves,” said Steadham, adding that supervisors and trained personnel are filling in for the striking employees.

“We had a contingency plan ready to go and we’re rolling it now,” he added.

No incidents were reported. However, traffic heading into the Stratford facility was backed up onto the Merritt Parkway on Monday morning, WICC-AM of Bridgeport reported. WTIC-AM reported that strikers were loud at times, but orderly and allowed vehicles to enter the Sikorsky property.

No new contract talks were scheduled. “The ball’s in their court,” Steadham said.

Sikorsky, a unit of United Technologies Corp., employs about 9,500 workers in Connecticut, including about 3,500 Teamsters and 6,000 salaried workers. The company makes civilian and military helicopters, including S-76 executive transport models, Army Black Hawks and Navy Seahawks.

Union members had been preparing for the possibility of a strike by forming a 100-member strike committee to make plans for picket lines, emergency financial assistance and other potential necessities.

Dear Editor,

As Frederick "Rick" Dubinsky, the hard-driving former chairman of United's pilots union, once said: "We don't want to kill the golden goose. We just want to choke it by the neck until it gives us every last egg," the relationship between unions and the companies they work for is “What can you do for me now.”

Unfortunately, years of union benefits piling on union benefits have made many of the companies they work for unviable. For instance, if Ford wants to lay off union workers, they still must 90% of their salaries and benefits for years. To unplug a computer in the Philadelphia Convention Center requires that a union electrician does the work (the actual unplugging). SEPTA union employees pay not one dime in co-pays or deductibles for their medical benefits and are willing to shut down the entire mass transit system in Philadelphia, indefinitely, to keep it that way.

When companies can not make a profit or compete because they are being squeezed for every golden egg, they have two options. Either go out of business or go to areas where unions are not as strong. This used to mean going to the mostly nonunionized Southern United States, where for the last 20 years every major automobile manufacturer has chosen to build new manufacturing plants, but now means to go overseas in search of the most competitive place to do business.

Management is not innocent, they have created this mess. They have made many unwise decisions of putting short term profits over the long term health of their companies. In the same vein, they have also agreed to outrageous union contracts because the bills and heartburn for them would come due on some else’s watch in the future.

Now the bills are coming due. And all the union iron clad contracts mean nothing if the company they work for goes out of business. Just ask the workers of steel and airline companies. And ask their retirees. All wish that the company they work for or retired from was a healthy and profitable company.

Unions need to focus on how they can make the companies they work for as strong as possible. This is the only way to keep union jobs, pay and benefits around for the long run. And that doesn’t mean massive pay cuts. Flexibly in work rules, retraining for new jobs when technology changes the old jobs, plugging in and using membership brains/experiences to make the company more profitable are all foreign concepts in many union shops. Their company’s future is their future. For instance, when union workers in Japan go on strike, they wear arm bands that proclaim “On Strike” as they continue to work. They understand that to cause unneeded financial damage to the company they work for, in these days of global competition, is one way to lose their jobs forever.

Unions also need to get out of politics. All of the major unions are strong supporters (both in money from mandatory union dues and “forced” volunteers) of the most liberal of democrat candidates. They have publicly taken positions of being pro-abortion, anti-gun and anti-tax cut (among a plethora of other social issues). None of these issues has anything remotely to do with how a union operates. But it serves to isolate unions from over half the population of America who want nothing to do with them just based on their political stands on these controversial issues. Many people actively avoid buying union made products because they feel they are financing their political enemies.

The union’s heritage is of the craftsman guilds. When you hired a craftsman, you knew you were getting value – someone who was trained, knew what they were doing and did the job right. Today, hiring a union person to do a job is synonymous for expensive, inflexible, sloppy work and belligerence. That is the image that needs to be changed for unions to flourish – what can we do to provide value.

Regards,

2banana

Exactly. I'm salaried at one of the other UTC divisions...if UTC medical benefits are good enough for salaried workers, then why are they not good enough for unionized hourly workers? Hell, a lot of those guys make more than I do!

Although the premiums have been increasing annually, we chose a higher-deductible plan since we have no kids and Mr. Rubber Duckie and I are young and healthy. I'm sure that will change when we have children but for now our medical benefit from CIGNA suits us. The medical offerings from UTC seem to be in line with what other major corporations offer their workers.

Let us also not forget that as UTC employees those Sikorsky workers have a pension plan, 401(k) matching, and the employee scholar program in addition to reasonably-priced medical and dental insurance options for their families.

The sense of union entitlement astounds me. If it wasn't for the salaried workers, those guys would have nothing to build...

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