• In this Issue >
  • Features
    • From the President
    • Is that a FLEX-FUEL you're driving?
    • Devastating news
    • Face time
    • UAW legislative priorities for 2006
    • UAW delegates meet with congressman
    • Workers Memorial Day
    • The Dangers below
    • Connecting dots, to Delphi’s Miller
    • Life on Line
  • Union Front
    • Company postpones filing court motions
    • Workers authorize strike
    • Anti-union group grasping at straws
    • Dana workers choose the UAW
    • Election results may be key to passage
    • Member minute
    • Organizing Roundup
  • Departments
    • From the Readers
    • Just the Facts
    • World of Work
    • UAW 101
    • Safer Work
    • Still Solid
    • Skilled Trades
    • Workers' Words
    • Solidarity Index / Past Issues

UAW Local 933 members build the AE 2100 engines, below, used in these C-130J military transport planes.

Flying high

At Indianapolis Rolls-Royce, all the UAW workers are back – and there’s room for more

After 100 UAW workers returned from layoff in January 2004, there were still 29 members of Local 933 out until last October.

Not only is everyone back, but with all the projects at the Indianapolis Rolls-Royce plant, there’s room for new hires.

“We’re going to be hiring one or two people off the streets,” said Bob Woodcock, unit chair for the 1,770-member Rolls-Royce plant, of which about 600 are skilled-trades workers. “In this day and time, that’s good news.”

Indeed, as American workers face more and more plant closings and layoffs in various industries, Woodcock said recent government production and aftermarket contracts have helped to keep the Rolls-Royce plant’s employment numbers level.

“I’m glad to see business at least being steady,” said Steve Ritchie, a machinist and UAW member for 27 years. “Even when it was less steady, the one constant thing was the UAW and the way the union looked out for the workers who were still working or on layoff.”

The plant runs two full-time shifts with about 1,000 workers on days and about 600 on the night shift. Another 170 workers are the skeleton crew of the midnight shift. Workers produce airplane engines and parts for military, civilian and commercial use.

Recent projects include:

• Producing the AE 3007 engine for the Global Hawk, the world’s highest flying unmanned surveillance aircraft. The Hawk recently reached a milestone of 5,000 flight hours in U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Building the AE 2100 engines used in the C-130J, a military transport plane. “About every time you see a huge military transport plane on TV that has two or four big engines, that’s what you’re looking at,” Woodcock said.

• Producing AE 1107C Liberty engine for the V-22 Osprey, a military craft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like a plane.

“My father worked at Chrysler before he retired,” said Joe Jennings, a machine operator and 10-year UAW member. “I watched him go through layoffs, plant closings and relocation. Through it all, he kept faith in his union protections, and I have the same faith in the UAW.”

Tony Wray, an assembler and UAW member for 27 years said, “I read the paper, and I see what is happening in other markets, and believe me, I feel very good to have the job that I have and the work that’s coming into the plant.”

Sandra Davis