'The lesson of sticking together'
Georgia machinists put down tools
By Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta, Ga.
Members of the International Association of Machinists Local
709--2,700 strong--are walking picket lines 24 hours a day in
front of the sprawling Lockheed-Martin plant in Marietta,
Ga.
Their strike against the world's largest defense contractor
began on March 11, following the membership's overwhelming
rejection of the company's revised "last, best and final
offer." Two California locals accepted the deal.
The defining issue for the workers is the corporation's
refusal to end its policy of outsourcing. The giant firm,
virtually synonymous with the military-industrial complex,
claims that in order to stay "competitive" in the global
economy, it must constantly lower labor costs and use cheaper
materials.
This translates into union-busting, unsafe working
conditions, and a lower standard of living for Lockheed-Martin
workers, and raises issues about the reliability and safety of
the planes.
In 1999, a strike was averted at the last minute over the
same issue. But IAM members say management undermined the
contractual agreement on outsourcing at every turn.
Lockheed workers have filed an unusually high number of
grievances over the years, according to a Georgia State
University labor expert. A common source of conflict is the
reclassification of a job from an hourly to a salaried
position. The other way the company has managed to reduce the
union-represented workforce to less than 40 percent of the
7,000 people employed there is to subcontract work to nonunion
contractors.
The Marietta facility, located at Dobbins Air Force Base,
builds the F-22 Raptor fighter plane and the C-130J Hercules
transport. Under the Bush administration's program of "endless
war," beefed-up contracts have been awarded to Lockheed-Martin,
totaling billions of dollars.
IAM members of Local 709 are on average 53 years old and
have 21 years of seniority. Currently they earn about $23 an
hour.
The Lockheed workers, who have not been on strike since
1977, voted down a revised "last" offer that increased their
hourly pay by 10 percent over the next three years but retained
"flexibility" for management in outsourcing. The rejected
contract would have also required that local members not
support other union members on strike.
The sentiment of those walking the picket lines is that a
pay increase doesn't matter much if the job disappears.
As Jimmye Brooks put it, "My daddy was a Pullman porter in
1946. He taught us about unions and the importance of sticking
together. To me that's the right thing to do." Jimmye Brooks is
teaching his children the same lesson.
Reprinted from the April 4, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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