McDonnell Douglas Workers Walk Out

Several thousand workers “who are fed up with management’s tactics” walked off for half of their shifts Monday at the huge McDonnell Douglas assembly plant in Long Beach, United Auto Workers officials said.

Local 148, which has been working without a contract since Oct. 17, is objecting to changes in the company’s health insurance plan that would cost each worker and dependent $104 a year and work rule changes requiring employees to “cross over” and perform several other categories of work, “Ski” Cibulski, local vice president said.

Company officials said only “1,000 or 2,000 (of the firm’s 10,000 UAW) workers left their jobs” and called the proposed three-year contract “as good as or better than any other contract in the aerospace business offered this year,” with a lump-sum bonus of 3% of company earnings and a 3% wage increase in the first year.