Textron won’t comment on union negotiations

Textron Aviation would not comment Monday on the contract negotiations that fell apart Sunday with the Machinists union.

According to the union, the company refused to give the union a contract proposal on Sunday. Union negotiators were told that the company will actively seek to outsource work to other states, including to Louisiana, which has been trying to woo it.

Contract negotiations had been underway to combine the two separate local unions at Cessna Aircraft and Beechcraft Corp. The current labor agreements vary widely.

Textron, Cessna’s parent company, bought Beechcraft in March and formed Textron Aviation.

Scott Ernest, CEO of Textron Aviation, met with reporters in late September ahead of the National Business Aviation Association’s conference, which opens in Orlando next week.

During the briefing, Ernest spoke briefly about the negotiations.

The goal was to get a contract by the end of October, he told reporters.

“The two teams are working together very effectively,” Ernest said at the time.

Cessna and the Machinists have a history of having a good relationship, he said.

“People are always going to be focused on job security,” Ernest said. “When you go through what the market has gone through, having a job is a very good thing.”

The Machinists represent 2,494 hourly workers at Cessna under Local Lodge 774 and 1,627 hourly workers at Beechcraft under Local Lodge 733.

Beechcraft’s current five-year labor agreement expires in 2016; Cessna’s seven-year agreement expires in 2017.

The deal breaker during the talks on Sunday was the union’s desire for the company to put in writing that the jobs would stay in Wichita, said Frank Molina, directing business representative with the Machinists District 70.

Textron Aviation officials refused and walked out of the room without offering a final proposal of a new contract, Molina said.

Both sides have been working hard on a proposal and were making progress in the talks, they said in a letter to members last week.

This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Textron won’t comment on union negotiations."