Written by: KATHLEEN E. CAREY
Daily Times 02/22/12 - 5:15 AM EST
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP — Mike McGonigal drove to his Boeing workplace Tuesday morning — but instead of working, he took a vacation day to stand on the Industrial Highway with his fellow union members.
“I’m angry,” the West Chester resident said. “I’m angry about this. They’re treating us like trash in there.”
Shortly after 5 a.m., about 50 members of the United Aerospace Workers Union Local 1069 stood along the Industrial Highway and along Stewart Avenue to protest work that Boeing is sending to a Delaware flight test center.
Union officials are concerned about the company’s decision to have two Canadian CH-47 Chinooks sent to Summit Aviation in Middletown, Del., for flight testing after having sent six Netherlands CH-47 Chinooks there for the same evaluation.
Chris Owens, president of the UAW 1069, said that work had been done at the Delaware County plant for more than 50 years.
“They made a commitment to us that no more work was going to go down there and they backdoored us,” he said, adding that the union lost 81 jobs last year to vendors.
Boeing officials said the two Canadian aircraft need to be tested in Delaware because of a temporary limited capacity issue at the local plant but that the remaining 13 would be tested in Delaware County.
“The requirement to have air worthiness testing for two aircraft performed at Summit Aviation is necessary to meet our delivery schedule for our customers,” Damien Mills, Boeing’s director of communications, said. “This is not any attempt to push work out of the factory.”
Company officials said the Netherlands aircraft faced a similar capacity crunch and was tested in Delaware when the Chinook factory renovations were underway.
Union leaders questioned Boeing’s moves.
“The fear is they’re setting us up for failure and then they can send the work down to Summit,” Owens said. “What’s their commitment to this county?”
He said personnel in the Flight Test department was decreased from 79 to 67 when the production was three aircraft a month and this year that order is expected to increase to five a month.
“Let’s keep the work here in Delaware County,” Owens said.
Mike Tolassi, vice president of UAW 1069, questioned the work being completed by the vendors.
“The started a trend in the last few years with vendors,” he said. “We have to rework a lot of vendor work.”
In addition, union representatives said that senior managers were accusing their members of swearing and being in the bathroom too long and have instructed the union members not to talk to each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment