Bob McCarty Writes

I remain dumbfounded by the nerve and/or stupidity of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers members who went on strike Monday — and remain on strike today — against their employers, CSC Applied Technologies and its subcontractors at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Okla.

Five days ago, I reported on the beginning of the strike by approximately 700 IAMAW workers in the Northwest Oklahoma town of 47,000 where I spent most of the first 18 years of my life.

Today, it appears things are going downhill fast as the pilot training mission at the base is paralyzed and the Pentagon has begun moving pilots and their instructors to other bases in Texas.  The video above, from the Enid News & Eagle newspaper, shows photos of strikers.

Here’s to hoping the folks in my hometown wake up, realize the nation is in the grip of both a recession and a war, and that they should get back to work before someone at the Pentagon decides to shut down the base permanently due to the area’s unreliable union labor force.

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UPDATE 6/21/09 at 1:54 p.m. Central: According to a report in the Enid (Okla.) News & Eagle today, members of the civilian contractor employees on strike at Vance AFB will vote on a new contract Monday, perhaps bringing an end to the strike which began June 8.