PORT ANGELES — Employees at Angeles Composite Technologies Inc. in Port Angeles have voted to join the International Association of Machinists.
The decision at an employee meeting last week was overwhelming — 78 employees voted to join the union and six abstained out of 84 eligible employees, said Bob Wilson, director of IAM Lodge W24, on Thursday.
“We’re not there to try to break the company,” Wilson said.
The union is there to make sure that rules are applied equally to all workers and that rules and hours don’t change daily, he said.
Mike Rauch, president and CEO of ACTI, said Friday he had no comment on the vote at that time and was not aware of the issues Wilson referred to.
“I haven’t discussed any of this with IAM,” he said, and did not know when he would.
ACTI, an aerospace manufacturing company that serves commercial and military markets, is located at the Port of Port Angeles’ composite campus near William R. Fairchild International Airport.
It employs 120 people, Rauch said.
Koniag Development Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag Inc., owns the majority shares of ACTI and is a federally recognized Alaska Native Corporation, organized under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
The high-tech firm uses high-temperature autoclaves, advanced clean-room environments, high-level assembly operations and machining techniques.
ACTI’s major contracts are with Boeing, Bombardier Aerospace and Lockheed Martin, with the company’s products used in the manufacture of F-22 aircraft and the new F-35 aircraft.
In August, the rapidly expanding company signed a five-year lease with the port to move into a new clean-room building and is considering another expansion into a second new building that is currently unoccupied.
Wilson said employees from the company initiated the union effort.
At the time, employees were divided about joining the union, and ACTI management agreed to work with employees to address ongoing concerns, he said.
Wilson said a verbal agreement between ACTI and employees was made to address the employees’ concerns, and a six-month no-contact period began between the union and ACTI employees.
Rauch said he had no knowledge of any such agreement.
“None whatsoever,” Rauch said. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.
“We have worked with our employees on a day-to-day basis for 16 years, so I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Rauch added.
Wilson said that when the six months were over, employees told the union that ACTI failed to stick to those agreements and asked IAM to return to help organize, he said.
“It didn’t take long to talk to ACTI’s workers and get a positive vote,” Wilson said.
It takes a week to 10 days for the vote to be ratified by the National Labor Relations Board, then IAM will work with ACTI to learn more about the business.
Workers will identify their concerns, a negotiator familiar with composites and the aerospace industry will be identified, then the union and ACTI enter into contract negotiations, Wilson said.
Neither Wilson nor Rauch had a date as to when negotiations would begin.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsula
dailynews.com. PDN Managing Editor/News Leah Leach contributed to this report.
