BY DANNY BOOHER

ST. LOUIS - One week into the strike by 6,700 McDonnell Douglas workers that began here June 5, members of International Association of Machinists (IAM) District 837 are staffing the picket lines and strike headquarters, determined to stick out what many say may be a long fight.

Outsourcing of jobs is the central issue in this strike. The machinists union is seeking guarantees that current work done in St. Louis will not be outsourced to non-union companies or other McDonnell Douglas facilities, and that 7,000 IAM jobs will stay in the plant. The company offer calls for a workforce of as few as 5,000 through the life of the contract.

Under the company's offer, union workers would receive a 2.5 percent wage raise in the first year of the four-year contract followed by lump-sum payments equal to between 2.5 and 3 percent of wages in the following years. Workers at McDonnell have not received a wage hike outside of cost of living increases in the past seven years.

The contract offer also demands concessions from the union members in the areas of job classifications, benefits and pensions. Striker Dan Sanders, 34, spray paints Harpoon missiles. "I'm one of the younger workers in the plant," he explained. "There used to be younger workers until McDonnell laid them off. Since 1990 they have laid off thousands of workers. This is one of the reasons we are on strike - to fight for jobs."

There are over 15,000 non-union employees, - supervisors, technicians, office workers, kitchen workers - still on the job. The company claims to be continuing production with some 1,500 salaried employees, engineers and supervisors.

Teamsters Union Local 610, which organizes 75 workers in the plant, is honoring the Machinists' picket line. About 260 electricians, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1, are still on the job. Many IBEW members did not cross the line the first couple days of the walk out. But when the local proposed jointly striking McDonnell, with both the IAM and IBEW staying out until both won a contract, IAM officials rejected the offer. Following that decision, the IBEW members voted not to strike.

Dozens honk in support of pickets
At three separate stints on the picket lines, worker correspondents for the Militant noted only one negative comment by a passerby who shouted "get a job" compared to dozens of thumbs-ups signs, car horn honks, and shouts of "thanks" and "good luck" by passing drivers. Other union members in the area, including IAM Local 9 members, Teamsters who work at the airport, and United Auto Workers members from a nearby Ford assembly plant have dropped off coffee, hamburgers, and iced tea at the picket lines. Some have walked the picket line. Owners of local restaurants, taverns, and one car dealership have dropped off food at the union hall or offered discounts to strikers.

A court-ordered injunction barring mass picketing was slapped on the strikers hours after they walked out June 5. Any perceived violation of the injunction can subject the union to substantial fines. The IAM local has organized security teams to make sure the pickets don't exceed the injunction limit of four per gate. In one incident, a strike supporter bringing coffee to a picket line was accused by company security of acting as a fifth picket. For this reason, strikers are asking supporters to check in at the union hall, where busses are organized to take them to the gates.

Tracy Caito and Jim Price of the union security committee explained that they are responsible for the safety of strikers and for logistics and support on the picket line and in strike headquarters. "We also keep an eye on the company's newly hired security force, ADP, who follow our coffee trucks around and video tape the strikers on the picket line," Caito said.

The strikers also face potential intervention from the U.S. government. McDonnell Douglas produces primarily military aircraft at its St. Louis facility. Customers for its T-45 training jets, F/A-18 and F-15 fighter jets, C-17 cargo planes, and AV-8B Harrier jets include the U.S. Air Force, Marines, and Navy as well as the governments of Israel, Finland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland.

`National security overtones'
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Swiss government has written to the U.S. Department of Defense to complain about the "greedy" strikers potentially delaying delivery of its orders.

The strike "is a setback for everyone and very traumatic for the workers involved," declared Jim Talent, a Republican congressman from Missouri and member of the National Security Committee. "There are national security overtones." Federal labor officials said if a situation is deemed a threat to national security the president can call in both sides and instruct them to resolve it or consider other measures.

Meanwhile, McDonnell Douglas president Herbert Lanese drew fire over remarks reportedly made during negotiations in April, trying to pit union members against their counterparts at McDonnell's competitors. According to the June 7 St. Louis Post- Dispatch, Lanese said "You in the IAM think of the people in Boeing in Seattle and the people at Lockheed Martin as your brothers and sisters. You have to look at them like I do, as your mortal enemy. I wish they were dead. I wish their children would starve to death. I wish they would lose their houses."

Although Lanese later denied the remarks, Forrest Watson, a union negotiator who said he sat across from Lanese in the negotiations told the Post-Dispatch "That is exactly what he said. As a McDonnell employee, we would like to beat [Boeing and Lockheed] out of planes but as far as starving people to death, killing them, we don't want that."

During picket duty shift change one striker, a fork lift driver in the plant, offered her opinion on Lanese. "What gets me, is if Lanese thinks that about the Boeing workers and their families, you know he thinks the same thing about us McDonnell workers here."

Commenting on the stakes in the strike, Price said, "This is not a McDonnell Douglas thing. This affects every other union in the U.S."

"And not just in the U.S.," added Caito. "We've already gotten a call from France. I'd say unions have to stand together not only here but in the whole world."

A Father's Day strike support picnic-rally is planned for Sunday, June 16, at the District 837 strike headquarters. Messages of support or contributions to the strike fund should be sent to: IAM Aerospace District 837, 212 Utz Lane, Hazelwood, MO 63042-2784. Checks can be made out to District 837 IAM and sent to the same address, attention Larry Meadows, Secretary Treasurer District 837. For information on the strike call 314-731-0603.

Danny Booher is a member of IAM Local 1018 at US Air in New York. Mary Martin is a member of IAM Local 1759 at Northwest Airlines in Washington, D.C. Jim Garrison, a member of United Auto Workers Local 110 at Chrysler in Fenton, Missouri, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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