Composite plant workers to vote on joining Machinists

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 1, 2005

Workers at Toray Composites in Pierce County will vote next week on whether they want to be represented by the International Association of Machinists. The Toray plant supplies the raw materials Boeing uses to build composite structures at its Frederickson plant, and will be the main supplier of composites that Boeing will use on the 787.

The organizing effort is being led by IAM District 751, which also led this fall’s Machinists strike against Boeing. According to the union’s monthly newsletter, http://dev.iam751.org/aero/Aero_Nov_05.pdf work schedules are a big beef.

Key Quote: “In the production area, Toray employees work rotating 12-hour shifts … every two weeks they find themsleves on a different shift … they also rotate their days off — rather than having a traditional Saturday and Sunday weekend or set days off.”