As the Kansas City Plant production strike stretches into its third week, Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies President Chris Gentile said the plant contractor is considering all options to help the plant continue to meet its production requirements, and he didn’t discount bringing in workers from outside the plant. “We’ve got a contingency plan that frankly allows us to deliver product indefinitely,” Gentile told NW&M Monitor yesterday. “We’re training people and executing and so forth and we’ve got a plan. We would have to pull in other resources at a certain point, the whole nine yards.” Honeywell has been using salaried employees to continue its production efforts since 860 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 778 production workers voted to strike Oct. 9. The union has rejected Honeywell’s contract offer that includes 13.5 percent raise for existing employees over the life of the six-year contract but would cut starting wages for new employees, reduce healthcare benefits and cut back on union representation at the plant.
This week, the union said it has countered with a four-year contract “that provides health care that contains costs and provides affordable continuation for all future retirees, equal treatment for all new employees, and necessary coverage of union representation in the plant, along with fair wages and pension increases.” The union hasn’t provided specific details of its proposal, and it’s unclear how it will be received by Honeywell, which has said the budget climate facing the nation makes it necessary to implement changes to the union’s contract. “This is not about how highly skilled or how highly valued they are,” Gentile said. “This is frankly about as you look forward, first you look at the deficit, the unemployment, and then you look at what NNSA is trying to accomplish in terms of cost management, and this is about how much are we willing to pay as taxpayers in this case. We’ve offered a great package.”