Photo: Karen Warren, Staff Photographer

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers' strike is at Wyman-Gordon in northwest Houston.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers' strike is at Wyman-Gordon in northwest Houston.

Machinist and aerospace union strikes at Wyman-Gordon

Union workers at Wyman-Gordon went on strike Monday to protest proposed pay and benefit cuts at the aerospace and energy manufacturing facility in northwest Houston.

Formal contract negotiations between management and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers began during the first week of August. After the contract expired on Sunday, 271 union members set up a picket line at midnight.

Wyman-Gordon could not be reached for comment, but a union representative said Wyman-Gordon pushed reductions in disability benefits, shorter break times and lower wages for entry-level workers, among other things.

Byron Williams, District 37 president and directing business representative, said the strike is aimed in part to help the next generation of workers by "giving them a fair, equitable start to take care of their families, have a hope for retirement and send their kids to college."

Williams said the proposed contract would reduce pay for short- and long-term disability by 10 percent and would limit employees to six months on short-term disability and then 18 months on long-term. Currently, employees can stay on long-term disability until age 65.

The company was also seeking to reduce breaks to 15 minutes from 20 minutes, which concerns union members because they work in a building without air conditioning.

Finally, the contract would pay entry-level employees significantly less and freeze their wage increases for three years.

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"The new guys, I'd love for them to have just as good a life as I've got," said Kenny Stevens, 58, who inspects parts at the Houston facility.

Stevens was walking the picket line from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with Michael Black, 64, who makes the tools used to forge products at the facility.

Wyman-Gordon's Houston facility manufactures aircraft engine components including blades, fans and motors. It also manufactures seamless pipes for the energy industry.

There were 30 to 35 employees on the picket line when the strike began at midnight. During the day, five to 10 people walked the line in four-hour shifts.

Effect on older workers

Black said the proposed contract also would hurt older workers.

"Some of the contract language, I believe, is unfair to the guys who are in their 50s and 60s," he said, citing proposals like the one to cut disability benefits.

He said establishing a different pay scale for new employees would be unfair to younger workers and could create a division among hourly employees doing the same work for different pay. He said it could affect the union's ability to attract new members in a right-to-work state.

"How can you ask someone to join your union, and you've accepted a double standard?" he asked.

This is Black's fourth strike in his 43 years with the company, which has gone through some name changes during that time.

That many strikes in one company is high for this region, said Scott McLaughlin, labor and employment partner in the Houston office of the Jackson Walker law firm. Strikes are pretty rare locally, he said.

"I think our labor relations down here are a little less contentious than some other parts of the country," he said.

John Jansonius, Dallas-based partner at Jackson Walker, said that, by casual observation, it seems the machinists and aerospace union is involved in more strikes than other major labor organizations.

Jansonius speculated it could be harder to replace skilled machinists, the union could have better strike reserves to help employees financially or the union simply has a culture that leans toward striking.

"The Machinists is probably more willing to call a strike and engage in work stoppage than a lot of other unions," he said.

Williams, with District 37, said the union does not pursue a strike every time a new contract is negotiated. Employees get a new contract every three years.

Clashes over benefits

Jansonius said benefits are often a centerpiece of negotiations. McLaughlin said in his experience it is no longer common for manufacturers to offer long-term disability until age 65.

"I would characterize that as something maybe that used to exist industry-wide many years ago," he said, "but something that's very uncommon now."

Benefits are costing management more at both union and nonunion workplaces, McLaughlin said, so reducing benefits and pay is becoming more common.

"I suspect that economic conditions are driving the management position," he said. "And similarly, I suspect that economic positions are driving the union."

On the picket line Monday, some of the striking workers took time out for the celestial event that seemed to have the entire nation's attention. Stevens turned his sign into a pinhole projector and watched the solar eclipse on the concrete. Some of his colleagues brought eclipse glasses.

"Mother Nature doing her best," Stevens said.

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