Vance Air Force Base at Standstill, Strike Continues

By Charles Bassett, NEWS 9

ENID, Oklahoma -- Civilian workers at Vance Air Force Base in Enid entering a second week on strike. The strike has left the base at a near standstill.

CSC Applied Technologies said it's willing to sit down and resume negotiations with the workers. But unless their demands are met, workers said there's nothing to talk about.

For a week now, nearly 800 civilian workers employed by CSC Technologies on Vance Air Force Base have been walking the picket lines.

"We all want to go back to work. There's families out here, husbands and wives that have kids and they need to be back at work," said Celestia Reynolds, a Vance civilian worker.

"We've had a lot of community support. We've had the police department. We've had the Enid Fire Department. We've had UPS. We've had Tinker Credit Union," said Vance civilian worker Cheryl Clark.

But union leaders said they are getting no support from CSC.

"Our membership has told us that they are not going to go back to work until they get a fair agreement," Union Representative Jerry McCune said.

Vance trains student pilots. Due to the strike, the planes are grounded so pilots have been sent to a Texas.

"One of the solutions to making sure that we do have our pilots graduate on time was to send 27 students and instructor pilots to Randolph Air Force Base and Laughlin Air Force Base," said First Lt. Agneta Murnan.

The striking workers cannot reach an agreement with the company over a variety of issues including paid time off and pensions.

CSC said it's willing to extend the current contract another 30 to 60 days while negotiating a new contract with the workers.

"We're ready to go back and sit down at the table, any time and any place with no preconditions and discuss our issues and resolve them," said Gary Richardson with CSC Applied Technologies.

But the workers said CSC has had enough time already to bring in some outside help to get some of their work done.

"This company needs to make a decision to give their employees a fair and just and reasonable contract and then we'll all go back to work," McCune said.

CSC has had to bring in some outside help to get some of their work done.

The union says a handful of workers have crossed the picket lines without any trouble.