About 320 union employees at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Campus in Jefferson County walked off the job Thursday after voting down a contract offer from the defense and aerospace giant.
The employees are represented by the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Local 766. They joined several hundred union members who work for Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Fla., who walked out at the same time.
The two locals are covered by the same agreement.
Bill Shafar, president of UAW 766, said the workers held a rally Thursday morning and then began walking the picket line.
“We’ll establish normal strike teams for pickets of three shifts a day, 24 hours, seven days a week until we get some resolution,” Shafar said.
Negotiations began in March. The union’s contract with the company expired April 11. Shafar said the union didn’t plan the start of the strike to coincide with May Day. May 1 is celebrated by workers worldwide as International Labor Day.
Shafar said 68% of the union members voted Saturday against the contract in large part because they don’t think the proposed wage rate is fair.
“Denver is an expensive place to live and we have folks out here who struggle on the wages they’re making,” Shafar said. “Some work two or three jobs, and we feel that is not right for a company that makes a whole lot of profit.”
The national union said in a statement that Lockheed Martin made $24 billion in profit and paid its CEO $66 million over the last three years.
Shafar said employees can start as low as $15 an hour and wait years before reaching higher pay rates.
“We value our employees and their expertise and look forward to reaching a fair labor agreement for both sides. Our employees perform important work for our customers and the nation through their work supporting programs critical to our national security,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement.
Lockheed Martin said it employs roughly 14,000 people in Colorado at its locations in Jefferson County, Boulder and Colorado Springs. Colorado employees have designed and built satellites and spacecraft for numerous missions by NASA and for the military.
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