UAW Union Ratifies Rockwell Contract

United Auto Workers union workers ratified a new three-year contract with Rockwell International, providing 7% general wage increases and two lump-sum payments to about 8,000 aerospace workers in California and Oklahoma, officials said Sunday.

UAW Vice President Odessa Komer said 84% of the members voted for the contract at Local 887 in Los Angeles; Local 1519 in Santa Susana, Calif.; Local 952 in Tulsa, Okla.; and Local 1558 in McAlester, Okla.

“It is a forward looking settlement which the UAW-Rockwell negotiating team was able to achieve amid the difficult economic circumstances currently affecting the entire aerospace and defense industry,” said Komer. “The new national agreement features improvements in the incomes and retirement benefits for workers in Rockwell’s aerospace and defense operations.”

The union has lost about 9,000 jobs at Rockwell in the current wave of Defense Department cutbacks, including the B-1 bomber. Rockwell also builds the Space Shuttle, which has been grounded, and rocket motors.