Published: June 10, 2009 10:50 pm         

Strike moves into its 4th day outside Vance

Rain fell on striking union members picketing near the west gate of Vance Air Force Base Wednesday, but little else was changed on the third day of the work stoppage.

Members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 898 voted overwhelmingly Friday night to reject the latest contract offer from CSC Applied Techno-logies LLC and subcontractors PRI/DJI, DenMar Services and M1 Support Services, and to go on strike once the existing three-year contract expired at midnight Sunday.

Since then there has been no contact between the contractors and the union, which has some 775 members working in various areas at Vance.

“There is no word or anything from the company,” said Bob Wood, IAMAW spokes-man. “We haven’t heard anything. As soon as we do we will let the members know immediately.”

Wood said the union is willing to return to the bargaining table.

“At this point we will sit down, we just need a commitment that the company is going to sit down and actually bargain, that there is going to be some movement,” Wood said.

In CSC’s latest statement, issued Tuesday, company spokeswoman Caroline Longanecker said, “We have been and remain willing to restart negotiations with the IAMAW, reach a fair agreement and return our employees to work.

“We are deeply disappointed that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 898 believes that a strike is its only course of action.”

Congressman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., Wednesday called on both sides to return to the bargaining table.

“Negotiators must do their best to resolve these issues as quickly and as fairly as possible. The sooner we get the planes flying at Vance the better,” Lucas said. “There is a special relationship between Vance and the Enid community, which allows these two groups to mutually benefit from one another. When a member of this community, military or civilian, is put to the test, they will always stand together.”

The flying mission at Vance remained grounded Wednesday. In a statement issued Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said, “If the negotiations do not reach a conclusion within the next seven days, the Air Force will be forced to send the current senior training class of pilots to another base that conducts training for pilots.

“If the strike continues, more and more classes, and potentially their aircraft, will be moved out of Vance.”

1st Lt. Agneta Murnan, Vance’s chief of public affairs, did not directly address Inhofe’s remarks, but said, “Any decisions on how to adjust pilot production here at Vance will be made in concert with the guidance of the 19th Air Force (of which Vance is a part).

“Pilot production is always something the leadership of the 71st Flying Training Wing watches carefully so that we are making sure we’re meeting the demands of the Air Force for skilled aviators.”

Vance trained 425 pilots in fiscal year 2008, Murnan said, and “we are on our way to producing a number close to that in fiscal year 2009, which ends Sept. 30.”