A family-run metal forging company that manufactures aluminum parts for Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft is getting stung by a strike of more than 33,000 machinists as the ripple effects of the shutdown sweep the world’s aerospace industry.
The small forge in Orange is part of a bigger supply chain that’s soon to buckle under the strike. Machine tool and metal shops across the region are feeling the effects of the Boeing strike, as is a complex supply chain that stretches across the world.
“This could be devastating for us,” said Andrew Flores, president of Independent Forge Co. Inc. “Forgings are the start of most parts made in the aviation business, and that’s the first thing they want to stop.”
Leticia Jiminez polishes parts at Independent Forge Co. in Orange, CA on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. The company, which makes aluminum parts for the Boeing 737-MAX, has been affected by the strike of more than 30,000 workers with the machinists union at the Seattle-based aerospace company. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Five workers at the near half-century old Independent Forge were laid off shortly after the Boeing machinists’ union rejected a new contract proposal on Sept. 13 that included a 25% pay raise over four years. More layoffs could be coming at the tiny Independent Forge with a workforce of 25, or even a shuttering of the doors permanently if the labor dispute lingers for months, as some anticipate.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 have until Friday at midnight to ratify a “best and final offer” that includes bigger raises and larger bonuses. The union’s rank-and-file has indicated that they may take a pass on the sweetened offer.
Independent Forge remains in financial limbo as it continues to confront strike-related supply chain shakeups.
The company also is worried about a second strike that emerged earlier this week when unionized machinists with a general aviation unit owned by Textron Corp. in Kansas walked off their jobs for higher wages and benefits, Flores said.
“These companies are starting to issue stop work orders and push out the orders as far as possible,” said Flores, whose father is even looking at refinancing his home as a lifeline to raise cash for the business. “Everybody is affected across the board. We may have to reduce our work days to maintain the workers we have, or unfortunately lay off again.”
Independent Forge, which does business with each of the aerospace giants, creates designs for metal products and machine parts with molds filled with aluminum placed into super-heated pressing machines.
On the Boeing 737 Max, the company’s parts are used as hangars to hold engines in place, or make locks for door mechanisms. Independent Forge also makes components on the F/A-18 fighter aircraft, like a part for the flight control system needed to manually override the controller on the rear rudder in emergency situations.
This year, the business is expected to generate about 65% of its $3 million in annual revenue from the Boeing 737 Max commercial plane being built in Washington, according to Flores.
Andy Flores holds a magazine with a photo of him working at Independent Forge Co. in 1985. The company, which makes aluminum parts for the Boeing 737-MAX, has been affected by the strike of more than 30,000 workers with the machinists union at the Seattle-based aerospace company. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The financial headaches at Independent Forge have grown along with Boeing’s ongoing production disruptions in recent years, Flores explained.
The company also struggled when Boeing cut production after two 737 Max plane crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in November 2018 and March 2019, respectively.
And then Covid-19 pandemic workplace lockdowns grounded airlines in 2020, furthering compounding Boeing’s woes.
The machinists strike, which some anticipate could run through next spring, could ultimately end up shuttering Forge’s aging plant, situated in an industrial alley in Orange, said Flores. He is hoping for union agreements sometime soon.
“If it isn’t resolved Friday, we are getting ready to see a lot more layoffs,” he said.
Flores said that Textron’s strike in Kansas also is being felt at his Orange factory.
“We’ve already started laying off, and if we come back, we’ll have to train our workers again and then restart,” he said. “If we slow down our production now, we can’t go faster when they restart. They’ve caused a major ripple in the supply chain.”
Danny Flores operates a hydraulic forging press at Independent Forge Co. in Orange, CA on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. The company, which makes aluminum parts for the Boeing 737-MAX, has been affected by the strike of more than 30,000 workers with the machinists union at the Seattle-based aerospace company. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Ripple effects
The ripple effects of the machinists’ strike is global but is being felt especially hard throughout the Los Angeles region and major subcontractors overseas.
Some of the parts forged at the Orange plant get shipped by truck and container ships to an overseas factory in Italy owned by A. Abete S.r.l., which then machine tools parts for Leonardo SpA, a weapons maker also in Italy that helps assemble parts for Boeing planes.
Abete and Leonardo, as well as other suppliers, have notified Independent Forge to hold back on making more parts because of the strikes.
This has Andrew Flores nervous.
He’s got more than 500 parts sitting in inventory at his plant ready to ship to subcontractors in the 737 Max supply chain.
This is a concern because purchase orders for the parts haven’t been paid to Independent Forge, which is working with major subcontractors on the commercial plane like Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corp. and Triumph Daher, a French-based manufacturer.
Locally, the supply chain story is the same.
Independent Forge, which is considered a “disadvantaged business” by the federal government’s Small Business Administration, takes 12-feet long aluminum extrusions from Fontana-based TST Inc., or Timco Standard Tandem Ablase, and cuts them down into small shapes and designs.
Slowing orders
The slowing orders are having a cascading effect on a long supply chain across the U.S. and into Europe, Flores said.
The company’s small parts, after they are forged, are then shipped to Santa Clarita-based B&B Manufacturing Inc. where the parts are machined again for specific shapes to fit on the 737 Max planes.
Incoming product is affected, too, with material from Arconic Corp.’s Massena, New York, operations also beginning to slow.
The entire Boeing 737 Max supply chain is ratcheting down orders with supply chain companies like Independent Forge as the aerospace strikes spread their economic impact.
“You can go do a rally, visit a restaurant or buy things at a retailer to help a small business, but in our world, nobody wants to hear it,” Flores said.
Workers make parts at Independent Forge Co. in Orange, CA. The company, which makes aluminum parts for the Boeing 737-MAX, has been affected by the strike of more than 30,000 workers with the machinists union at the Seattle-based aerospace company. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Emotional ties
In some ways, the Flores family is working to keep the memory of the co-founders alive – especially Rosemary Ruiz, who took Andrew and his brother Mateo under her wings as children.
Flores’ father, Andy Flores, was given the company after the owners passed away several years ago.
A small memorial to co-founders Ruiz, Ermalinda Diaz and Kwok Ming Wong, is set up at an outside corner of the factory they helped established off of North Batavia Street over 49 years ago.
Ruiz was the last of the three co-founders to pass away in 2014.
That’s about when the 60-year-old Andy Flores brought in his sons Andrew and Mateo, and his wife, Rene, to help run things.
The brothers have fond memories of the place where their father toiled in the heat and noise of furnace blasts on the factory floor.
They recall hitting rocks pulled from tumblers used to polish metal parts with their baseball bats in the driveway in front of the factory. Or placing buckets to catch water from heavy rains leaking through the roof. They sometimes mowed the lawn of Ruiz’s home in Yorba Linda.
The elder Flores said that he’s stressed he may have to take out a second-mortgage on his home in order to keep the business afloat.
“This is my life. I’ve been here since I was 15-years old,” Andy Flores said. “I’m 60. What else is there for me to do? I made a promise to (Rosemary) to keep the doors open.”
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