TEXAS Bell Helicopter workers avert strike, agree to pact

Workers will receive a signing bonus and pay raise.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Assembly and maintenance workers agreed Sunday to accept a new three-year contract with Bell Helicopter Textron, averting a strike.
Workers had planned to walk off their jobs at 12:01 a.m. today at the Fort Worth plant where Bell makes parts and components for the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
Members of United Aerospace Workers Local 218, the largest of the Fort Worth plant's four worker groups, approved the bargaining committee's recommendation to accept the new contract on a 1,176-326 vote during an afternoon meeting. Union officials then notified Bell of the acceptance vote.
Contract details
The contract calls for a ratification bonus of $1,700 to be paid on June 26, with cost-of-living adjustments to be granted quarterly based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.
A general increase of 2 percent will be granted on June 13, 2005.
The contract makes minor changes in group insurance, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, accident and sickness weekly benefit and health care benefits.
Negotiators for the company and the union began talks in late April.
Three smaller locals, representing the security force, some administrative workers and some engineering personnel, will negotiate their contracts with Bell over the next two months.
The contract for the UAW's Local 317, which represents about 350 office workers, expires June 29.
Textron, based in Providence, R.I., has spent two years trying to cut costs and increase profit. Its restructuring plan eliminates 10,000 jobs by the end of next year.