Vought workers end 16 week strike (Union agrees to a deal worse than the one it rejected in Sept)

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090116/BUSINESS01/901160360/1003/BUSINESS

By G. Chambers Williams III • THE TENNESSEAN • January 16, 2009

Nashville-based machinists union workers voted Thursday night to approve a new contract with Vought Aircraft Industries Inc., ending a 16-week-old strike.

Under the new pact, Vought has up to 14 days to "bring everyone back to work," said C.W. Malone, vice president of Local 735 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents about 1,000 hourly workers at the plant.

The vote was 498 for approving the contract and 190 against, Malone said. Ballots were cast at McGavock High School in Donelson.

"Some of them would go back on Tuesday," he said, "but everyone should be back on the job by Feb. 2."

Monday is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so the plant will be closed that day, the union said.

On the picket line Thursday outside the facility off Briley Parkway adjacent to Nashville International Airport, some of the striking workers said they weren't happy about the company's latest contract offer but probably would approve it.

FULL story at link.