Aircraft Unions Will Fight Deal

Labor unions representing workers at McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics said Monday that they have formed a committee to block McDonnell’s proposed sale of a 40% stake in its commercial aircraft business to a Taiwanese group for $2 billion.

The unions are working with members of the California congressional delegation to draft a resolution that would ask the company to delay the deal until alternatives could be found, said Bob Gamboa, chairman of the committee and an official at United Auto Workers Local 148, which represents Douglas workers.

Among those alternatives would be a government bailout for Douglas or the formation of an American consortium that would provide financing to Douglas, Gamboa said. The group is calling itself the Committee to Enact a Patriotic Alternative to Commercial Takeover of American Aircraft Production and Maintenance, or PACT.

The unions are worried that the Taiwan deal will lead to a steady erosion of Douglas-related jobs in Long Beach and San Diego, where the MD-11 fuselage is produced by General Dynamics.

“If this deal goes through, there won’t be any commercial aircraft built in Long Beach after 1995,” Gamboa said.

A McDonnell spokesman termed that assertion “far-fetched.” Without the Taiwan deal, the company’s existing commercial aircraft business is jeopardized, he said.