MARIETTA - Workers at a Lockheed-Martin assembly plant voted Sunday to accept a new contract and end their nearly two-month strike against the defense contractor.
About 2,700 workers at the suburban Atlanta plant had been striking since March 11 against what they called the company's effort to outsource work.
Sixty-three percent of the members who voted accepted the offer, said Bob Wood, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 709.
"We're happy that it's done," Wood said. "I think that our members reluctantly accepted it, even though they weren't really pleased with it. But we got the things we needed to have fixed."
The plant has about 7,000 workers and produces F-22 Raptor fighters and C-130J transports. Another 150 workers were striking at parts plants in Meridian, Miss., and Clarksburg, W.Va.
A tentative contract agreement was reached Wednesday after talks with federal mediators in Washington. Union officials said the offer was similar to contracts accepted last month by Lockheed workers in California.
In the contract, Lockheed agreed to consult the union on future plans to outsource jobs, with the union allowed to suggest alternatives. It also gave employees a 10 percent salary increase over the contract's three-year term.
Monday
February 3rd, 2025
3:05AM
