HARLINGEN — A strike by a key United Launch Alliance union at three out-of-state plants will not have an immediate impact on the space firm’s local facility at Valley International Airport, company officials said yesterday.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) went off the job Sunday at Decatur, Alabama, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The machinists union voted to break off negotiations which began April 16 and reject what the company called a fair and final contract offer.
“We’re disappointed that the IAM members rejected ULA’s last, best and final offer and voted to strike,” Tory Bruno, ULA president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We believe our proposed contract is very competitive with other companies. Importantly, ULA’s final offer contributes to ULA’s long term viability in an increasingly competitive launch business environment.”
That space launch competition now includes NASA and China, as well as space companies such as ArianeGroup, Blue Origin, Space X, Virgin Orbit, Stratoland Systems and Orbital ATK.
ULA, formed in 2006, is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space and Security.
ULA officials said the plan is for operations to remain open at all sites, including Harlingen, at least for the time being. “ULA will implement its strike contingency plans while focusing on meeting its commitments to our customers,” the company statement said.
The company had offered a $6,000 ratification bonus per worker and a three-year contract with raises of 1.5 percent, 1.75 percent and 2 percent over the life of the pact.
The contract would retain the existing medical plans and guarantee that no union employees would be displaced due to subcontracting and that ULA would only subcontract work that it has outsourced in the past.
Union officials countered that the nearly 600 IAM members working at the space company believe they should be rewarded for the glittering safety record which ULA uses to market its launch services.
“Although the contract does include some improvements, it just wasn’t enough for a group of working men and women who have made ULA the absolute safest company in the aerospace industry, said Jody Bennett, chief of staff and aerospace negotiator for IAM. “Their offer did not clearly mirror the decades of hard work put forth by these machinists members.”
No new bargaining talks had been scheduled as of yesterday.
