By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com

UPDATE: State chamber president says vote violated "fair play."

Machinists union members employed by Vought Aircraft in North Charleston voted 92% in favor of ratifying a contract agreement with the company.

But union representatives won’t say how many workers voted Friday at the Steelworkers Union Hall located in North Charleston’s Park Circle.

“We don’t release that information on our contract votes,” said Bob Wood, a union spokesman based in Dallas.

Some employees have expressed concern that they didn’t know a vote was being taken and that only a small fraction of those in the collective bargaining unit might have participated. Those concerns came up at a meeting last night at the union hall, according to a worker who was there.

Dallas-based Vought was also taken by surprise that its workers voted to ratify an agreement with the Machinists union, the company said in a statement released Thursday.

Vought spokeswoman Lynne Warne said Vought was not privy to information about the number of workers who participated in the vote.

“Despite the fact that additional bargaining sessions were scheduled and final proposals had not been exchanged, Vought officials were advised by the IAM (Machinists union) that union members had ratified Vought’s proposals at an emergency meeting called by the union on Nov. 7,” the company said.

On Monday, the following workday, Vought announced it was laying off the majority of its plant workers to account for hiccups in Boeing’s 787 schedule. The extended program timeline was attributed to a Machinists union strike against Boeing in which 27,000 machinists in Washington, Oregon and Kansas walked out for 57 days. That strike ended recently. The company said it plans to reopen its North Charleston fuselage assembly operation when Boeing has enough work for it to do.

Still, Vought will sign the contract, Warne said.

“We negotiated in good faith, made a good offer, and they accepted it,” she said.

Both the union and Vought declined to provide a copy of the final agreement. Vought said it included a 401(k) plan, performance-based pay and the ability for Vought to manage the North Charleston facility. The agreement “includes terms and conditions substantially similar to those in effect at the time of the union’s certification” the company said.

A significant difference is that the contract calls for institution of a seniority-based layoff system. That also means that the company will have to call back workers based on seniority when the plant reopens.

“This contract gives us recall rights,” Wood said.

Only employees who have joined the union and were actively employed at Vought had the right to vote on the contract. Because South Carolina is a right-to-work state, bargaining agreements cannot force membership. The union would not disclose its North Charleston membership, and Vought said it was not aware of the number of workers in the union because the company does not collect the dues. In October 2007, workers voted 67-60 in favor of forming a union.

“The most important thing about this to realize is what this does for everyone,” Wood said. “You have to be a member to vote, but you don’t have to be a member to benefit. The contract covers everyone.”

In its statement released Thursday, Vought also took issue with a Charleston Regional Business Journal report on Wednesday in which an unnamed employee said the union vote was significant because either a worker or company representative could request a vote to decertify the union starting Nov. 14.

“No such arrangement existed, nor is such an arrangement legally permissible,” Vought said.

The National Labor Relations Act allows employees, without assistance or encouragement by their employer, to seek decertification one year after the forming a union if a collective bargaining agreement has not been reached, Vought said. The earliest date that employees could have sought such an election was Saturday, “but Vought has no knowledge that a decertification was under way when the ratification vote occurred Nov. 7,” the company said.

Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.