Striking for fair deal at Bell Helicopter
By
FORT WORTH, Texas--Members of United Aerospace, Automobile, and Agricultural Implements Workers Local 218 are braving 100-degree-plus heat on the picket line to remind Bell Helicopter management and members of the local community that they are still on strike.
On June 14, rank-and-file members of Local 218 voted 1,177 to 680 to reject a proposed contract with Bell Helicopter at its Fort Worth facilities.
The most notable points of contention with the proposed contract include the skyrocketing cost of health care plans for Bell Helicopter workers and their families, along with the elimination of 44 unionized janitorial positions at the Fort Worth facilities.
"Just ask any employee, and they don't like it," commented Dan Sanchez on the issue of the new health care plan, the cost of which would have increased from about $80 to about $300 per month under the recently rejected contract.
"A guy can come in and make a good living and take a step up. I spent two years in that job, and it kept me from getting laid off," said Sanchez, on the issue of the janitorial positions that are on the chopping block. Workers currently in these jobs will likely be replaced with outsourced, non-union workers employed at a significantly lower wage.
According to a June 26 post on the Local 218 Web site, the strike committee is scheduled to meet with Bell contract negotiators on July 1 in an effort to renegotiate a "fair and equitable" contract.
Bell Helicopter has stated on its Web site that striking workers have no guarantee of a job after the strike is resolved. This coupled with the ferocious Texas summer heat experienced by picketers outside the Bell Helicopter plant is a testament to the courage and resolve of Local 218 members.
Members of the North Texas branch of the International Socialist Organization and Students for a Democratic Society at the University of North Texas offered their support by walking the picket lines with striking workers.
The resistance shown by Bell Helicopter workers comes at a time of growing working-class resistance to the status quo, which is also embodied by Wal-Mart workers' attempts to unionize in the Dallas/Fort Worth region.
For up-to-date information and to send messages of support, visit the UAW Local 218 Web site.
