Talks Had Fallen Apart Sunday Over Job Security

Efforts to bring machinists working for Textron subsidiaries Beechcraft and Cessna were set to resume Wednesday after the talks collapsed Sunday.

A letter released jointly by Textron and the IAM to employees and posted on the IAM website said that "We took a pause over the weekend, but have agreed to reconvene the negotiating process. We will keep you informed over the coming days of any next steps."

The letter was issued by Jim Walters of Textron and Frank Molina of the IAM.

While the letter does not indicate a timeline for the talks to resume, the Wichita Business Journal reports that the two sides were sitting down Wednesday, and they hoped to have something hammered out by Friday for a vote by the union membership.

Molina told the paper that he had received WARN notices of impending layoffs for a large segment of the unionized workforce at Beechcraft. He would only say it was in the "hundreds." The letter released jointly by Textron and the union included no mention of the potential layoffs.

Molina said that while the last negotiating session did not go well, he is "optimistic" about this next round of talks.

FMI: www.textron.com, www.ll733iam.com/