Lockheed Martin workers in Ft Worth, TX on strike

They're not on strike about the defense contracts. They'r on strike because they're getting cuts in benefits (medical care) while the CEO is still raking it in. Could possibly work the information into the DA for 4/22 in Sunnyvale.

From http://austin.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=6774&group=webcast

Lockheed Martin workers in Ft Worth Texas are on strike.

Lockheed Martin Workers On Strike
Report From From The Front Lines
Tuesday, April 15
by Stefan Wray

Last week we watched television images of Saddam's statue being pulled down by the U.S. military in the heart of Baghdad. This came after months of worldwide opposition to Bush's war.

Today we stood at the main gates of Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth Texas facility where the F-16 "Fighting Falcon" and F-22 "Raptor" are manufactured. We weren't at Lockheed Martin for an anti-war rally.

On April 14, Machinist Local 776, which represents over 4,000 workers who assemble the F-16 and other fighter jets at the mile-long Lockheed Martin Aerospace plant, walked off the job and began a strike after negotiations broke down on Sunday afternoon.

That afternoon the union had been presented with Lockheed Martin's "best and final offer" says Joe Stout, the company's spokesman.

But union representatives say this offer came in so late on Sunday that there was no time to carefully examine its provisions. It was therefore recommended to the members to not accept the contract. Moreover, there were serious concerns over regressive proposals for the workers' health care benefit packages.

Specifically, Lockheed Martin's contract proposal called for a sizeable increase in the cost incurred by workers for prescription drugs and medication.

Workers voted overwhelmingly to strike, far surpassing the two-thirds majority that the Machinist union requires to walk off the job.

One worker we talked to today - Augie Podsednik - who also happens to be a City Council member and volunteer Fire Fighter in the city of White Settlement, told us that if the union accepted this contract offer one of his pharmacy costs would jump from $10 to $100.

He said that for many of his co-workers, especially older workers more apt to be taking medication, or whose spouses or other family members may be doing so, the increase heath care costs offset or surpassed the wage increase being offered.

To add insult to injury, last week corporate managers of Lock Martin Aerospace received bonuses valued in the millions of dollars.

The regressive contract offer also comes after Lockheed Martin had been awarded a number of lucrative work orders to produce fighter jets for countries like the United Arab Emirates and Japan.

We learned that Lockheed Martin's attempt to reduce the value of the machinist's health care benefits is not an isolated incident, but is both part of a national trend and something the company has tried to do at its other facilities.

At Lockheed Martin's facility in Marietta, Georgia, workers there also had to fight against a reduction in health care provisions in their current contract.

These attempts by corporations to roll-back the gains that organized labor have historically made are unfortunately not anomalies but are increasingly part of the standard political landscape since Bush's rise to power.

Many of the same motivations that drive the U.S. will to take over the world, also drive corporations' will to power and their need to reassert their dominance over labor.

The sad irony in Fort Worth is that these workers who build the fighter jets which have become important tools in Bush's war on terrorism are being subjected to the ongoing corporate warfare being waged in this country.

We asked several union members today how long they thought this strike would last. There was a common feeling that it could be awhile. They didn't sense a readiness on the part of Lockheed Martin to return to the negotiating table any time soon.

The last time the Machinist Local 776 went on strike in 2000, it lasted for 18 days. And a 1984 strike had a similar duration.

Based on the comments we heard today, and the union's history of negotiating with Lockheed Martin, it seems likely the strike will last into May.

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Iconmedia's Stefan Wray and Pam Thompson drove from Austin to Forth Worth on Tuesday, April 15, to video document the strike by Machinist Local 776 at Lockheed Martin Aerospace. For more on Iconmedia, see http://www.iconmedia.org