http://www.avpress.com/n/05/0105_s11.hts
Rockets aren't rolling during strike
By TINA FORDE
Valley Press Business Editor
HUNTINGTON BEACH - The International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers strike that has idled 18 Boeing employees at Edwards
Air Force Base since Nov. 2 is keeping three satellite-payload rockets
on their launchpads.
Lacking the trained and certified technicians needed to carry out the
long launch process, two Boeing rockets remain on the ground at
Vandenberg Air Force Base and one sits earthbound at Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station in Florida.
Boeing's Long Beach Flight Test group in Palmdale at Edwards conducts
final flight tests on C-17s. According to union local 2024 president
Larry Olinger, "The company has brought in other people to do some of
that work."
Negotiations appear to be at a stalemate.
"We have contacted the company a few times to let them know we are
willing to talk," Olinger said. "They haven't responded. We told them we
could even meet on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, but there was no
response."
Boeing spokesperson Robert Villanueva said the status of negotiations
remains unchanged.
"We have no plans to return to the table, but we are keeping our line of
communication open if they want to approach us and if they want to alter
their position," Villanueva said.
The union represents 96 Boeing machinists at Vandenberg, 282 at Cape
Canaveral, 86 in the C-17 Quick Response Team in Huntington Beach, 103
based at a Torrance warehouse and 18 with the Long Beach Flight Test
group at Edwards AFB.
In the third month of the strike, Villanueva said, the only work at a
standstill is the three rocket launches on both coasts.
"Right now we're halting launch processing activities at the launch
sites," Villanueva said.
"A lot of people are involved in a rocket launching," he said, "and a
lot of questions have to be answered."
Echoing the comment in a separate phone call, Olinger said that a launch
involves "a lot of prep work - you have to start the rocket, put the
satellite on top, put the housing around it, test for the fuel system to
make sure there are no leaks - you load the fuel, unload the fuel and
reload it. If all the tests are passed, you are ready to launch.
"It's not just pushing a button. It's dangerous. A rocket is a big gas
tank. If you make a mistake, it's a bomb."
Boeing cannot borrow machinists from other companies.
"Lockheed Martin has a different rocket," Olinger said. "They couldn't
get those people. It's a different technology. There's no one out there
to launch these rockets, no one trained and certified."
Villanueva said that the Delta IV sitting atop the Space Launch Complex
6 pad at Vandenberg is waiting to take a NROL-22 satellite for the
National Reconnaissance Office into space. The satellite performs
imaging functions. Following technical delays at the Oct. 5, 2005 launch
attempt, the team removed the fairing or nose cone that houses the
satellite as a safety precaution, as the rocket was located under the
path of a Titan IV rocket.
The other rocket waiting at Vandenberg, a Delta II on pad SCL-2, is
scheduled to carry a pair of weather satellites for NASA. It has been
there since October.
The Boeing rocket in Florida is a Delta IV on pad SLC-37. On the ground
since summer due to initial technical problems that preceded the strike,
it awaits its payload of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration weather satellite.
"They are all pretty much government missions," Villanueva said. The
strike has not impacted Boeing's schedule yet, he said, but "to our
customers, when does it start getting critical?"
While both the company's pads at Vandenberg are taken, two of their
three pads at Canaveral are open. For now.
"It takes a few weeks to more than a month to realistically prepare a
rocket for launch," he said. "We do have other launches for our schedule
this year."
Another local of the union at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia
threatened to strike Jan. 1, but ratified a contract on new Year's Eve.
The mechanics work on the amusement park's rides.
--
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