Rohr Workers Accept New 3-Year Contract

Members of the International Assn. of Machinists voted Sunday to accept a new three-year contract with Rohr Industries Inc., formally endorsing an agreement that averted a strike at Chula Vista-based aerospace manufacturer.

The contract increases wages and retirement benefits and improves health care, life insurance and pension benefits for the company’s 2,900 Chula Vista workers and 1,600 Riverside workers, according to Jerry Broening, a Rohr spokesman.

The contract, which ended nine weeks of negotiations, also provides for one-time bonus payments in its second and third years. Broening said he was happy with the outcome.

“There was never a stop in the negotiating process,” he said. “There’s always differences of opinion, but we were very pleased with the cooperative attitude taken by the union.”

Workers were scheduled to return to work beginning with the last shift late Sunday night, Broening said. A spokesman for the union could not be reached.