Lockheed Martin Corp Brings In More Workers As Strike Drags On-Reuters

Reuters reported that Lockheed Martin Corp under intense pressure from the Pentagon to reduce labor and pension costs, said that it would hire more temporary workers to maintain production at its Fort Worth, Texas, plant, where a key union has been on strike for eight weeks, mainly over future pension benefits. Lockheed spokesman Joe Stout said the Company had hired almost 300 temporary workers already, and had borrowed about 50 non-union workers from other sites in Texas, Georgia, California and South Carolina for welding and other specific jobs. In addition, he said about 510 members, or about 14%, of the striking International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had returned to work at the Texas plant and two military bases in California and Maryland. The strike began on April 23, after a third restructuring of the F-35, the Pentagon's weapons program, which delayed full rate production by six years until 2019 and left uncertain when the military would start using the new stealthy aircraft.