Big news: 600 ULA Machinists at the main facility in Alabama and the launch sites have voted to strike over contract negotiations and are picketing.
http://spacenews.com/ula-machinists-go-on-strike/Prior to the vote, the company said its operations would not be affected by a strike. ULA confirmed that in its May 6 statement, saying it would “implement its strike contingency plans while focusing on meeting its commitments to our customers.”
I believe this in the short-term, but how do you go on without 600 workers in the long-term, especially when you just offered them all a $6,000 bonus and 1 to 2 percent salary increases each year? Clearly they're doing something valuable for you.
http://www.theverge.com/2018/5/7/17326610/ula-strike-internal-association-machinists-union-rocket-launchWhile this strike is happening, ULA will need to find another way to get its rockets made and up into space.
That quote seems more accurate than the company's "not affected by a strike" statement.
An IAMAW representative says that the ULA employees have two main issues with the contract ULA proposed. One involves stipulations on travel between the two launch sites. ULA doesn’t launch out of Vandenberg very often, so the company maintains just a small workforce over there. So whenever there is a Vandenberg launch, employees from Florida are called to travel to Vandenberg to help with mission operations. Originally, employees only had to be in California for 30 days at a time and were then rotated out if needed.
However, IAMAW claims the new contract would allow ULA to call Florida employees back to Vandenberg after they had already returned home from a 30-day stint. “If you come back, they can send you back again,” Johnny Walker, a representative for IAMAW in Cape Canaveral, Florida, tells The Verge. “The family life is gone, and you can’t say no.”
This one would be a deal breaker for me too. 30-days consecutive away from home is insanely hard on the family. Doing it back-to-back with maybe a day or a weekend break is further insanity, imo.
Additionally, IAMAW says the contract gives ULA the option to sub-contract any job that it wants, meaning a full-time employee’s work could be given to an outside company at any time. The union sees that as ULA’s attempt to reduce the size of its workforce and pay lower wages. “Our guys have certification beyond belief,” says Walker. “We have a perfect record for launching rockets. We never have lost a rocket or had a failure. We were part of it being successful, and now they’re turning it around and treating us like dirt.”
Yeah that's a problem too. A Unionized workforce can be a double-edged sword for both parties. With all sorts of new competition in the launch industry, causing ULA to be undercut on price quite frequently, I understand why the company would want to be able to find cost efficiencies with contracting. Walker is correct in stating that their labor may cost more, but it also a proven, quality commodity. Then there's this:
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/ula/ula-machinists-on-strike-over-disputed-contract-offer/Another sticking point was subcontracting. IAM members fear that ULA could use that to cut full-time jobs, according to the Orlando Sentinel. ULA, however, said it has no intention of displacing workers via subcontracting and it guaranteed that in writing as part of its “last, best and final offer.”
Not sure I believe their stated "intent" when they're putting it into the agreement that they can contract-out whatever they want. That's double-speak. "We want to be able to do this at any time we choose, but we don't intend to do so." Give me a break.
I can't get a feeling for how long the strike is expected to last, or if the parties are close to agreement or miles apart. If the strike drags on more than t a couple of months, it will get interesting to see how their launch manifest is affected.