Convair Moves to Replace Strikers : 500 Machinists Soon to Be Hired; Judge Limits Picketers

General Dynamics’ Convair Division officials said Monday they expect to hire 500 machinists by the end of the week as replacements for the nearly 4,000 striking union machinists who soundly rejected the company’s second contract proposal on Sunday.

Convair spokesman Jack Isabel said that more than 2,500 persons have applied to fill the jobs since the company began to advertise for replacements last week. A strike was called at midnight July 19 by the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in a dispute over job security and seniority.

Both sides appeared to harden their positions in the eight-day strike over the weekend. On Sunday, machinists rejected a modified proposal from Convair by a 64% majority. On Monday morning, union officials said that as many as 1,000 strikers blocked entrances to Convair’s Kearny Mesa plant in a show of solidarity.

Families on Picket Lines

Some striking workers were joined by their families on the picket lines to emphasize workers’ fears that Convair’s proposal to do away with “absolute seniority” could jeopardize their homes and lives, IAM Lodge 1125 spokesman Tom Roberts said.

Police reported no serious incidents during picketing at Convair plants in Kearny Mesa, Lindbergh Field and Air Force Plant 19 on Pacific Highway. Isabel said the strikers succeeded in slowing cars driven by non-striking employees reporting to work in the morning.

On Monday afternoon, Convair officials obtained a temporary restraining order signed by Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman that limits the number of picketers to a “reasonable number,” Isabel said.

Roberts said that the large number of picketers at Kearny Mesa was intended as a message to Convair.

“We’re trying to show the company the serious concern that workers and their families have over this contract,” Roberts said. “They didn’t like the contract proposal on Sunday. They didn’t like it last week.”

Roberts and Isabel agreed that differences over seniority and job security were keeping the two sides apart in the negotiations.

Seniority Issue

Isabel said company negotiators modified the company’s original contract offer by agreeing to give workers with more than 10 years’ seniority “unlimited bumping privileges” during layoffs. Workers with less than 10 years’ seniority would have no bumping rights, Isabel said.

Under the company’s new offer, workers with 10 or more years’ seniority would be assured of not being laid off unless workers with less seniority were laid off first.

However, Roberts said that other contract language would fail to protect workers when they transfer from one Convair division to another.

“You could still have a situation where you could have a worker with 30 years’ seniority working side-by-side (with) a worker with three months’ seniority. In the event of a layoff, the company would be able to lay off the guy with 30 years’ seniority and keep the guy who’s only been there three months,” said Roberts.

Roberts said that as many as 180 union machinists have crossed the picket line since the strike began. When the strike ends, the union plans to fine them and take them to court to collect the fines if necessary, he said. Union machinists who do not honor the strike can be removed from the union, but they cannot lose their jobs.

Isabel said that workers hired during the strike will remain as “permanent replacements” after the labor dispute is settled.

Meanwhile, another machinists’ strike at Solar Turbines Inc. has entered its third week. The strike at Solar, which was called by Lodge 685, also developed after union and company officials could not agree on seniority and job security issues. Lodge 685 spokesman Matt McKinnon said that both sides have not met since Wednesday.

Machinists at two other local companies have approved their contracts. IAM Lodge 389 approved a second offer submitted by the Langle Corp. after rejecting the company’s first offer, while machinists from Lodge 685 approved the first contract offered by Sundstrand Turbomach.

Photos in Part IV, Page 2C.