IAM Local 709: "Never mind!"

One for the "D'OH!" files . . .

Striking Lockheed Martin machinists began going back to work at midnight, just hours after they had overwhelmingly approved a new contract, just one week after launching a walkout. By a vote of 1532 to 537, IAM Local 709 ratified the contract. Union members rejected the same basic terms February 27, although the deal was approved at Lockheed facilities elsewhere. Opponents in Marietta said they objected to rising health care and retirement insurance costs. But those concerns seem to have diminished during a week on picket lines in which workers had no insurance coverage at all. The company said it made no significant changes to its offer before Tuesday's second vote. "There were some minor modifications that were specific to Marietta," corporate spokesman Tom Greer said. "But the economics were exactly the same." Stevens [president of IAM Local 709] attributed the change of heart to more information. "People have a better overall understanding of the contract than they did the first time they voted," he said Tuesday. "The company didn't move on the economic terms." Outside the Cobb Galleria Centre, where Tuesday's balloting took place, it was hard to find Local 709 members who said they voted to ratify the contract, even though it passed by a 3-to-1 ratio. "This is the same thing we turned down two weeks ago," said Jerry Worley, a 23-year Lockheed employee who works on the F/A-22 assembly line. "I don't know why they even brought us back." In 2002, the union's walkout also ended with no major changes in the deal that was initially turned down.

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution