C-17A production workers strike continues at Long Beach as other unions show support

Unionized truck drivers and trash haulers have agreed to honor picket lines at Boeing's C-17 plant, potentially strengthening the effect of a strike now entering its fifth day, union leaders said Friday.The announcement came as some 1,700 workers, joined by hundreds of allies, surrounded the plant for a raucous two-hour rally.

Workers began a strike early Tuesday after five weeks of negotiations failed to resolve differences on pension and medical benefits. "We'd love to go back to work, but workers are not going back until the company makes some movement on the remaining (health care and retirement) issues," said Stan Klemchuk, President of the United Aerospace Workers Local 148.

"The average age of (strikers) is 55, and this is the most important issue. We'd love to settle our dispute at the (bargaining) table, but we're prepared to stick this out. Members are fired up."
Local 148 representatives said UPS drivers and refuse haulers who handle tons of waste at the plant each week have joined the cause, though separate work contracts for those employees may eventually force them to cross picket lines.

Meanwhile, Boeing managers said they are not budging from their "best and final" offer, which 80 percent of workers rejected in a May 4 vote. Instead, in response to what Boeing said were numerous questions from employees, the company Friday began offering workers carefully-worded "advice" about breaking with strikers and returning to work. "The Company is not instructing or encouraging any employee to cross a picket line if he or she does not choose to do so," the company said in a memo to strikers. "Likewise ... the company is not soliciting, instructing, or encouraging any employee to resign from the union. This information is being provided solely to advise employees of their rights."

The rejected 46-month proposal included wage increases, but hiked medical and pension costs two months before the contract's expiration in 2014. Union members and their allies blasted the company's latest "advice" as a blatant attempt to divide the workforce and "bust up" the union.
"The vote was overwhelming," Klemchuk said. "We're all in this together." Union supporters joining Friday's rally included area residents, students, Teamsters members, UPS workers, trash haulers and strikers' family members. "I don't think my generation fully understands or appreciates the power workers can have when they stick together and fight against a powerful (force) like Boeing," said Maria Perez, a West Los Angeles College student who attended with classmates and professors. "I'm going to take this message and share it back at school and anywhere else I can. We plan to return with more supporters."

Back inside the plant, where production of the massive jet has been suspended indefinitely, about 3,000 non-union workers continue reporting to jobs in marketing, research, sales, engineering and related departments.Strikers, whose plant access cards have been deactivated, are scheduled to begin drawing reduced pay and medical benefits from a union fund, though many plan to file unemployment, saying the company's apparent lockout allows them to draw on federal jobless benefits.

(Krstopher Hanson - Long Beach Press Telegram)