Machinists at the Bombardier Learjet factory in Wichita voted on Saturday to accept a new labor contract, ending the longest strike in the plant’s history a little more than a month after it started.
The new labor deal includes an improved healthcare package, a 4 percent wage increase spread across five years and lump-sum payouts for workers. The contract received approval from 70 percent of the union’s members.
Machinists walked off the job on Oct. 8 after rejecting the company’s offer for a five-year labor agreement after being hit with increases to their health care costs. The contract reportedly includes no wage increases in the first year and a 1 percent increase in each of the next four years. Along with the pay increases, the deal includes lump-sum payments of $2,500 in the first year, $1,000 in year two and potential payouts through an employee incentive plan in years three, four and five.
The union’s Local Lodge 639 represents 825 hourly workers at Bombardier’s Learjet plant in west Wichita. This was the second and longest strike in the plant’s history in Wichita. The union went on strike for three weeks in 2006.
