Update: 03/04/98 Textron Lycoming has announced that it has fired 100 of the approximately 340 workers who struck last August. According to Frank Ratchford, VP of human relations, these workers eliminated their own jobs by striking which both lost the company business and prompted it to seek additional outsourcing. The union counters that un-materialized demand from Cessna is what has actually caused the lost business while the additional outsourcing was inevitable. It is expected that the remaining plant will now be liquidated.
Update: 02/20/98 Textron Lycoming accepts the union's offer to return to work. The VP of human relations, Frank Ratchford, announces that Lycoming is "glad to have them back." As a result of the settlement, the approximately 190 temporary workers have been let go.
For some background on the quality of Mr. Ratchford's word, see Supreme Court Docket Report
Update: 02/16/98 At 10:00AM on Monday, Feb 13, the union membership voted and delivered a letter of intent to Textron Lycoming to terminate the strike and unconditionally return to work. Picketing has been terminated and the strike, from the union's point of view, has ended.
According to union spokespersonnel, the vote is a strategic maneuver intended to force the company to deal with the replacement personnel ("scabs"). Again, according to the union, the company could be liable for back wages of the active membership should they decide not to accept the strike termination.
If the company agrees and the union does return, they will return under the conditions of the old contract pending the negotiation of a new one.
Update: 02/13/98 The UAW held a picket on Friday, Feb 13th with about 250-300 UAW members turning out. The picket was reported to be orderly although Williamsport's mayor is rumored to be upset about it. A Penn. State Police helicopter hovered over the pickters during the demonstration. A photo of the event can be had here. Caution, it is a very large picture.
Update: 02/12/98 Textron and the UAW met again on Feb 12, 1998 with "some progress" reported.
Update: 02/01/98 The union and Textron Lycoming are meeting on Jan 30, 1998 to resume labor negotiations. Textron has revised the proposed contract in an attempt to get the union to settle. This move comes a bit earlier than anticipated (the union did not expect Textron to come back to the table until the outcome of the court case in March). Possible forces pushing Textron to settle include rumored quality control problems with engine assembly as well as difficulties with suppliers of outsourced production.
Neither side, however, anticipates any real progress during today's talks.
In August of 1997, the UAW, which represents the unionized work force at the Textron Lycoming Reciprocating Engine Plant, struck. As of December, 1997, no resolution has been had with regard to the strike. The union offered, just before Thanksgiving of 1997, to return to work under the terms of the old contract pending the outcome of the Supreme Court's decision to be rendered in March of 1998 (for more info, see the hyperlink to the court of appeals ruling). Textron refused the union's offer and continues production at the plant with salaried employees (who are reportedly working 12 hour days) as well as an army of 100-150 temporary employees for whom Lycoming is paying room and board in Williamsport. Pennsylvania has ruled that Textron's actions constitute a lockout and that, subsequently, Textron is currently barred from hiring permanent replacement workers.
The focus of the strike is primarily the outsourcing of all component
production at the Williamsport facility. In 1994, the board of Textron
made the decision to phase out the production and manufacture of engine parts
at Lycoming in favor of a system of supplier relationships with non-union
subcontractors,
such as the Norton Manufacturing Company
(crankshafts), Precision Components (cylinders), and
Eaton industries (a long-time supplier of valves and valvetrain components).
Eventually the plan calls for only final engine assembly (from parts produced outside) and testing to be performed at the huge Williamsport facility. Once the suppliers are verified, it's planned that even incoming quality control (QA and QC) will be terminated at Williamsport as such an operation will, in the company's words, "add only cost and no value." Towards that end, five Magnaflux booths are going, along with five Rockwell hardness testers, ten Optical comparators and a whole bunch of inspection items
The first selloff of capital equipment occurred in December of 1995 when Myron Bowling Auctioneers of Ohio, a member of the Industrial Auctioneers Association was contracted to auction various pieces of equipment. Most notably gone in the first round of outsourcing was the plant's ability to manufacture camshafts and crankshafts.
Another, massive, selloff was scheduled for September of 1997, again with
Myron Bowling orchestrating the event. However, that has
since been postponed pending resolution of the ongoing strike. The
second selloff, once complete, will see the plant stripped of, among other
things, the huge Kearney and Trecker Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)
which formed the heart of the computerized crankcase production line. Other
items slated to go include the nitriding furnaces,
gear shapers,
plating
equipment,
horizontal and
jig boring machines, etc.
(All tool pictures compliments of Myron Bowling Associates)
The union's position, in a precedent-setting case soon to go to the Supreme Court, is that Lycoming negotiated in bad faith with the union in 1994. The union contends that Lycoming denied any knowledge of or intention to sell the plant during contract negotiations in April of 1994. The union took this position in good faith and bargained accordingly. In June of 1994 Textron announced plans to terminate production at the plant over the next three years.
Related sites, background, and legal decisions relating to this:
Elsewhere on this site, you'll find detailed histories of the Lycoming Manufacturing Company. The company certainly has a long (over a century) and noble heritage. Notable achievements include the salad days of auto engine production, the hyper engine program, and the XR-7755 engine (the largest piston aircraft engine in the world). At one point the company had over 2,000 workers running three shifts and produced nearly 1,700 new aircraft engines a month (compared to roughly 300 workers and 100 new engines a month today).
Outsourcing is the management fad of the 1990s and Lycoming has embraced it fully. But that's not an entirely fair statement; the failures at the plant cannot be blamed entirely on any one faction - be it management or labor. Certainly both sides have bled as well, over 600 people have lost their jobs in seven years at Lycoming and those ranks include both labor as well as senior management.
Was it necessary? Probably not. After all, the subcontractors now assigned to Lycoming's production are almost all larger (in terms of personnel) than is Lycoming. For example, the firm that manufacture's Lycoming's crankshafts is now larger than Lycoming (largely as a result of hiring people to handle the demand from Lycoming), as is the firm that manufactures ignition systems for their engines. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the author countered the claims of Sara Lee's executives, who had decided to outsource all production on the basis that it was "unprofitable," with the observance that somehow, someway, Sara Lee's subcontractors had found a way to make a handsome profit. A better, and more logical, conclusion is that somewhere in the past decade the company simply lost its will. When it did that, the spirit which brought us the XR-7755, the O-1230, the O-320, and all the other wonderful innovations died. It's been nothing but corporate rhetoric since.
I do not think that Lycoming's outsourcing was the result of some invisible hand sweeping over the marketplace. Nor do I think that Lycoming's management, or Textron, Lycoming's parent, had "no choice in the matter" as if they had somehow lost all human autonomy. No, outsourcing may result in better short-term financial health for the company but its root character remains: it represents the failure of humans engaged in a common purpose and towards a common goal to reconcile their petty differences. In short, it's the easy way out.
But all is not gloom and doom. The exciting ones to watch are the subcontractors like Norton and Precision. Scrappy little companies devoid of the horrible "us vs. them" mentality and full of esprit de corps. They will never be able to inspire or awe with huge industrial achievements but I bet it's awfully damn fun to work for them.
Too bad we can't have both any more.
