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USW Settles Contract with St. Marks Powder

For Immediate Release                                          October 17, 2006

St. Marks, Fla.  –  Members of United Steelworkers Local 170 have ratified a new three-year agreement with St. Marks Powder, a subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), that improves both wages and pension benefits, the union announced today.

The agreement, which replaced a previous contract that expired at midnight October 14, was ratified on October 14 by an overwhelming majority of the union work force. Local 170 represents 176 employees at the facility in St. Marks.

The settlement includes wage increases totaling 10 percent over the three-year life of the contract and a $3.75 increase in the multiplier used to calculate pension benefits. The wage increases are 3.5 percent in the first year and 3.25 percent in each of the second and third years of the agreement.

Health care coverage continued with a moderate increase in costs to employees in the final year of the agreement. Premium sharing remained unchanged in the first two years of the contract. In the third year, the employee share of the costs will rise by only 1 percent

“The membership was extremely pleased with the settlement,” said Mack Barfield, the St. Marks unit chair of Local 170.