Machinists

Eastern Airlines' Machinists union overwhelmingly voted down a cost-cutting proposal described by a company spokeswoman Wednesday as "our best offer." There were 7,596 "no" ballots, or 98.2%, against the offer that union local President Charles Bryan said would cut salaries by 56%. The tally compiled Wednesday also showed nine void votes and 90 ballots favoring the offer. The union represents about 9,500 mechanics and ground-support workers, Bryan said.

A federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday ordered Eastern Airlines' striking machinists to stop harassing customers and employees who cross picket lines at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The airline accused the strikers of spitting at employees and passengers, of throwing nails in front of cars in attempts to puncture tires, of damaging cars in a variety of ways and of making threats and assaults. Eastern lawyers appeared Wednesday morning before Judge Burton R.

About 1,000 machinists are expected to strike at midnight today at Solar Turbines Inc. John Webber, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Lodge 685, said that union leaders will ask the membership to reject a final offer from Solar when they vote on the contract today at 9:30 a.m. at the Al Bahr Shrine Temple.

Nearly 1,000 machinists at Solar Turbine Inc. walked out Monday, claiming their company's new contract offer is "radical and unreasonable," leaving both sides preparing for what may be a long strike, a union official said. "We spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to negotiate further, to set up another date for talks," said Matthew McKinnon, business representative for the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Lodge 685.

Unions representing UAL pilots, flight attendants and machinists, in an unusual display of unity, proposed Wednesday to buy 75% of the parent of United Airlines. The three unions said they stood ready to make hefty concessions over five years to help finance their plan, but they didn't say how much they are prepared to pay for UAL shares. UAL's shares jumped $6 Wednesday, closing at $161.50, on rumors that the unions were set to pay $190 a share for the nation's second-largest airline.

AFL-CIO officials said Tuesday that they would urge their 14 million members to picket, boycott and otherwise rally against Eastern Airlines nationwide if the company's Machinists union goes on strike Saturday. Machinists said they, too, would picket Eastern's sister carrier Continental Airlines plus other airlines, ships and other transportation services covered by the federal Railway Labor Act.

The strike by flight attendants against Trans World Airlines escalated sharply Saturday as machinists at some major airports across the nation refused to cross picket lines and machinists at others apparently continued to work. The 6,000-member Independent Federation of Flight Attendants had asked the 10,000 machinists who maintain TWA's jets to honor their picket lines, and the two sides in the dispute gave widely differing estimates on how well that strategy was working.

Boeing Co. and its machinists' union have reached a tentative contract agreement, which if approved would end a three-week strike that shut down the company's airplane production. Mark Blondin, district president for Machinists District Lodge 751 in Seattle, confirmed the agreement Sunday and said union members would vote on the deal Thursday. "I'm just proud of our membership," Blondin said. "They stood solid, unified, and that solidarity is what finally got the company to do the right thing."

About 950 Boeing Co. machinists who test and launch Delta rockets in Southern California and Florida walked off their jobs Wednesday after contract talks ended in an impasse. The job action by local members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers comes a month after 18,300 machinists in the Seattle area returned to work after a monthlong strike that forced the delay of 30 commercial aircraft deliveries and reduced Boeing's revenue by $1.5 billion.

If you were looking for a good machinist, Southern California use to be the place to find one. Now it's a place where employers import their machinists from other countries. They hold jobs open for years because they can't find workers to fill them. And they spend years--seven or more--trying to teach employees on the job because they can't recruit them ready-trained. "You don't find qualified machinists anymore," said Antonio Candia of ACL Development, a Canoga Park machine shop.