‘I’d like to get back to work’: Strike at Textron nears end of first week

Rick Haugen started putting aside $20 a week four years ago for this moment, just in case.

The 54-year-old has been with Textron Aviation for 26 years but this is the first time he’s had to go on strike.

A majority of the roughly 5,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 774 voted Sept. 21 to reject the company’s offer and go on strike, which started Monday.

Textron, which makes Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker planes and jets, is one of the largest employers in Wichita.

Haugen, an interior installer, said they have a huge backlog of work.

“So they need us, so it’s time to pay up,” he said Friday while holding a picket sign among coworkers outside the company’s location just east of Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport.

Strikers are at roughly a dozen areas around Textron’s locations in west and east Wichita.

Workers will lose their health insurance starting Monday, but the union is working to make sure they still have coverage while the strike lasts. The union will start paying workers $200 a week starting the third week of the strike, if it goes that long.

As of Saturday, no date had been set for the union and Textron to restart negotiations, said Rosa Rosales, a Textron employee who worked as a union steward for 12 years.

Workers’ top complaints about Textron’s proposed contract are that increases in insurance premiums cut into the proposed wage increases, proposed reductions in money the company gives employees for medical expenses, and concerns around retirement benefits, Rosales said.

Textron said it’s disappointed in the union’s decision to strike.

“The contract offer, which took six weeks of thoughtful and good-faith negotiations by both the Union and the company negotiating committees, provided a plan that aimed to protect the future of all Textron Aviation employees and the Wichita community,” Textron said in a statement. “No one benefits from a strike, and the company has made every effort to avoid one. However, as would be expected of any responsible business, the company has prepared for this scenario to ensure the business continues to operate for customers.”

The contract offer included a 26% wage increase over the four years, increases in cost of living adjustment with a “maximum increase from $700 to $1,500 per year, a “guaranteed $3,000 lump-sum payment every year of the contract,” and a “maximum 3% increase” annually on low- and high-deductible health insurance plans, according to Textron.

Employees under a single-person health insurance plan used to get $1,000 from the company to help with healthcare bills but the proposal reduced that to $500, Rosales said.

Rosales said the changes in health insurance, both in this contract and over the years, are a top concern.

Employees previously had more and better options for healthcare providers but now only have one, she said. Employees who started years ago, including her, also got a pension, which employees would like to see come back, she said.

Rosales has been one of the people running the operations of the strikers at the west location, which is operating out of the parking lot of the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local Union No. 441, located off of Kellogg in front of Towne West Square.

The east location headquarters is also using another union’s facilities on Harry.

Rosales helps make sure strikers are at the gates around the clock and that those strikers are fed and hydrated.

Donations have poured in from all over, she said Friday while waiting for a coworker’s family to drop off Chinese food from the restaurant they own.

A food truck was also in the parking lot. She said on Friday that the owners had offered to serve free meals. And police patrolling the area brought McDonald’s to strikers, she said.

“I’ve been amazed at the support everyone is giving us,” she said.

They were using a donated van to shuttle workers to the gates, but it was having mechanical issues late Friday morning so they had to use other vehicles. A bus was donated to help transport workers as well.

Cessna Aircraft Co. workers last went on strike in 1976, according to Rosales. Cessna was acquired by Textron in 1992.

Beechcraft workers last went on strike in 2008, she said. Beechcraft was acquired by Textron in 2014.

Strikers said Textron is using non-union employees, such as managers, to try and cover, but it’s not going to be enough to keep up with demand.

But not all workers are as financially prepared as Haugen to wait it out.

He said not having a spouse or children makes it easier to strike, but knows that not everyone is in that position.

“This company really don’t want to give anywhere, just expect you to just take it and be happy,” he said. “But, obviously, nobody is happy.”

Though he wants to get back to work.

“I’d like to get back to work,” he said Friday. “I thought I’d never say that.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2024 at 1:43 PM.