Strike Over; Vance Planes to Fly Again

ENID, Okla. -- Union workers at Vance Air Force Base approved a new labor contract Monday, ending a two-week strike that grounded aircraft and sent Vance's flight training program to bases in Texas.

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 898 voted Monday on the proposal after an 11-hour bargaining session Saturday.

A picket line was pulled immediately, and workers headed back to the base for the midnight and for 4:30 a.m. shifts, said Jerry McCune, president of District Lodge 171, of which Local 898 is a part.

"We're extremely happy to return to work," said McCune, who was on the negotiating team.

"It is our hope to have the planes flying again by Friday."

He said the vote was 550-155 to accept the contract with CSC Applied Technologies.

"We were able to get a good economic package" that includes a 3.75 percent wage increase and a 20-cents-per-hour pension increase at the end of each contract year, McCune said.

He said contract language on noneconomic points dealing with vacation, seniority and a points system were removed.

"We got all that resolved," he said.

McCune praised the Air Force, Enid city officials and the police with respecting the strike. "It was very peaceful, and very productive," he said.

Details of the new agreement will be available soon, CSC officials said.

The Virginia-based company has a contract with the Air Force to provide aircraft maintenance and base operations from information technology support to landscaping and day care.

The company said its immediate focus is to prepare the planes for training flights and bring those operations to full capacity.

"Overall, we are pleased that our key issues are included in the new agreement," CSC spokeswoman Caroline Longanecker said.

Those issues included a stronger drug-free workplace policy, better coordination of personal time off, and that team leaders for each of the training program's three aircraft have the necessary qualifications, as well as seniority, to head the team.

Gary Richardson, CSC's program manager at Vance and part of its bargaining team, said the company concurred with U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe's assessment that local negotiators were best suited to reach an agreement.

"We listened to the senator, and we heard what he said, and we agreed," Richardson said.

Employees began picketing CSC, and its three subcontractors, PRI/DJI, DenMar and M1 Support Service, on June 8 after negotiators reached an impasse on replacing a three-year contract that was expiring.

The work stoppage brought a halt to flight training at Vance, resulting in the temporary transfer of students and instructor pilots to Randolph and Laughlin Air Force Bases in Texas.