From your Negotiating Committee,
04/16/2009

On Sunday, April 19^th at 2:00 PM at the Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards, your Negotiating Committee will bring Lockheed Martin’s Last, Best and Final Offer to the membership for a vote. We will vote to accept or reject the proposal. If accepted, we will have a contract and go back to work. If rejected, we will then take a strike vote. If we vote by a two-thirds majority to strike, the picket lines will go up at midnight Sunday night.

While it has always been our intention to negotiate in good faith and try to come to an agreement, we are now beginning to wonder if there is enough time to get there. The company seems to be standing firm on some issues that we have let them know from the beginning would be strike issues to our membership.

First, the company’s proposal to do away with the pension plan for new hires. This is unacceptable. We told them from the beginning that this would be a strike issue if it were in the final proposal and that we would not give it up without a fight.

Second, the company’s proposal to strip away our standard 40 hour work week and implement an alternative 9/80 work schedule. Union members long before us fought hard to get an eight hour day and 40 hour workweek with premium pay for any hours above eight hours in a day, and we don’t intend to give it up without a fight.

Third, the company has proposed an increase in the cost sharing amount the employee pays weekly for health care and to remove the caps. Their proposal increases co-pays for hospital and office visits as well as enormous increases in prescription drug costs. The Committee doesn’t feel that the cost the company pays for our medical is in any way, shape or form hurting this company’s profitability and we’re not going to pay more without a fight.

These three top issues along with many that are still unresolved, stand in the way of progress. While the union continues to negotiate in good faith, for our brothers and sisters, in an effort to reach a fair and equitable agreement, we are concerned Lockheed doesn’t recognize that we are running out of time. Based upon Lockheed’s most recent proposal, it appears they lack respect for the quality and productivity you bring to the company, as well as the profit you earn for the stockholder.

Be sure to be at the contract vote on Sunday. It’s the most important meeting you will attend the next three years.

In Solidarity,