14 Arrested, 5 Officers Hurt on Rohr Picket Line

Fourteen people were arrested and five police officers were injured Tuesday when violence erupted during picketing at Rohr Industries Inc. here as aerospace machinists staged their first strike in 16 years.

The incident occurred when some of the estimated 400 pickets on the line at the firm’s main Riverside plant tried to prevent management officials from driving their vehicles through a gate during a shift change at 6:30 a.m., Riverside Police Officer Fred Kelvington said.

“Rocks, bottles, chunks of concrete, flaming sticks and ball bearings fired from slingshots” were hurled at the management officials, Kelvington said. Several car windows were reportedly shattered.

The injured officers, part of a contingent of 25 outfitted in full riot gear, received “minor injuries such as cuts and bruises” when they were caught in a “cross fire” between the pickets and management officials, Kelvington said.

‘Outside Agitators’

Union officials said the problem was instigated by an undetermined number of “outside agitators.”

“We had a number of outside agitators here that did not work at Rohr. We don’t know where they came from,” said James Sprout, president of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 964 in Riverside. “Most of the violence came from these people.”

“I have made an attempt to identify these individuals,” added Henry Mitchell, chief union negotiator for the Riverside local. “We deplore violence of any kind.”

Twelve people, all of whom were described by union officials as employees of the company, were arrested at the scene and booked at Riverside County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, throwing objects at vehicles, interfering with a police officer and carrying a concealed slingshot.

Two others were arrested during a shift change at 3:30 p.m., Kelvington said, on--among other things--suspicion of throwing bottles.

Bail ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 was expected to be paid by the union, a union official said.

At the firm’s Chula Vista plant, Police Chief Bill Winter said, non-striking Rohr employees reported nine flat tires after crossing through a mass of pickets Tuesday morning to get to work.

Attorneys for the company won temporary restraining orders in Superior Court in Chula Vista and Riverside limiting picketing at plants in each location. The court order in Riverside restricts the number of pickets to two at each of Rohr’s three Riverside County facilities and requires that they stay at least 10 yards apart to ensure safety. The Chula Vista order limits strikers to six pickets at the main plant gate and a total of 14 at four other entrances.

Such restrictions “are a cruel thing to do,” Mitchell said. “They are almost as unfair as the contract we turned down” and could “render the strike ineffective.”

Rohr Industries is one of Riverside County’s largest private employers, with 3,000 workers at its main Riverside plant, at a second facility nearby and at one in Moreno Valley. The firm’s Chula Vista plant employs 5,000. Rohr manufactures engine housing parts, thrust reversers and other components for aircraft.

Overwhelming Rejection

Members of the Riverside local and Local 755 in Chula Vista voted overwhelmingly Sunday to reject the company’s latest contract offer and struck the firm at 12:01 a.m. Monday, when the previous contract expired.

Issues in the strike include pension benefits, cost of living payments and medical insurance. Machinists’ negotiators said that the pension benefits offered did not come up to industry standards being granted by other major firms this year.

Cost of living benefits also caused a rift because union negotiators sought to include consumer price index increments in weekly paychecks, while company negotiators proposed granting a yearly payment or investing the benefits in interest-bearing accounts.