WICHITA, Kan. (AFX) - Machinists at Bombardier Aerospace's plant were scheduled to begin striking early Monday, after voting against a three-year contract, union officials said.
The strike, which was set to begin at 1:01 a.m. Monday when the current contract expires, was endorsed by 80 percent of the voting members Saturday, said officials for union Local 639 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. They declined to release totals.
The union represents 1,100 workers at the Wichita plant, which has about 4,000 employees.
'We're surprised and disappointed, because the offer was a good one,' Bombardier spokesman Leo Knaapen said Saturday. 'We'll take the steps we have to do to make sure we continue serving our customers.'
If the strike proceeds, it will be the first at the Wichita plant.
Machinists Union District 70 president Steve Rooney said labor leaders were willing to resume negotiations whenever the company chooses. But it was unknown when the two sides would return to the bargaining table.
'We're ready to go back to the table at any time,' Rooney said.
'We'll have a better idea at the end of the day where we're going,' he said Sunday.
Bombardier's final offer included a wage increase of 4 percent the first year and 3 percent in each of the final two years of the contract. It also retained the current health plan with increased premiums, pension hikes, its Christmas holiday shutdown and a pension plan for new workers.
'We expect the picket line to go up at midnight (CDT),' union spokesman Bob Wood said Sunday. 'We're just making sure that the pickets are going to be manned and working on schedules and that kind of thing.'
Union officials said it had been four years since the last pay raise. Three years ago, workers accepted wage freezes and other concessions because Bombardier needed to cut costs and threatened to close one or two plants.
'We gave up too much in 2003 to get the piddly amount we got today,' said Greg Steadman, a functional testing electrician. Steadman said Saturday that he planned to vote against the offer.
In August, Bombardier reported its second-quarter profit fell to $58 million from $117 million last year on lower regional jet deliveries. Its revenue for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2006, was $14.7 billion.
Bombardier Aerospace is a division of Montreal-based Bombardier Inc.
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