Posted on 08/30/2005 9:17:33 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
SEATTLE - Boeing Co. on Tuesday presented what it called its final contract offer to more than 18,000 Machinists, whose leaders promptly urged the workers to reject the proposal and strike.
A top Boeing executive warned that a strike would be devastating.
In a statement posted late Tuesday on its Web site, the union said the aerospace giant was insisting on concessions and takeaways in a "corporate strategy to break the workers who have built this company."
Union members will vote on the three-year offer Thursday, with the current contract set to expire Friday.
"I just cannot emphasize enough what a strike would mean to us because we would absolutely be walking away from our commitments to our customers," Alan Mulally, head of Boeing's commercial airplanes division, told a news conference earlier Tuesday after the company released its last offer. "There's just no way we would recover."
If the union members vote to strike, Mulally said the company would have no choice but to slowly shut down operations. And he added that customers have been clear that such a disruption could cause them to choose a rival airplane maker — notably European archrival Airbus SAS.
The final offer aimed to answer a key union concern with a 10 percent increase in pension payouts. But it otherwise changed little from Boeing's last offer.
The Seattle-based Machinists Lodge 751, which represents workers who assemble commercial airplanes, said on its top issue, Boeing's final offer of a pension of $66 per month for every year worked, up from $60 currently, was "insulting."
For about 17,500 affected Machinists in the Puget Sound area and Gresham, Ore., the final offer increased lump-sum payouts to $6,000 over two years. That total could increase to a maximum of $9,000 if employees choose to roll the money into a retirement plan.
The company also added a 2.5 percent wage increase in the third year of the contract.
For about 900 Machinists workers in Wichita, Kan., the company offered no general wage increase, but a one-time payout of $2,800, which would increase to $4,200 if any employee chose to deposit that money in the Boeing 401(k)-type retirement account.
"They are trying to buy you with cash, while dividing and hurting you in other ways," the union statement said. "We will not let this company divide us. Why would we allow them to separate Wichita out of the economic package?"
Machinists Lodge 751 is negotiating for employees in all three areas, but certain terms of the contract differ based on location. Workers represented in the talks now receive an average of $59,000 a year. The company said they would earn about $62,500 a year by the end of the new contract, excluding overtime and other extra payouts.
"From the start, the union has been very clear about our top issues" including pensions, health care and job security, the union statement said. "We presented a fair and reasonable offer but Boeing refused to address your issues."
The union criticized Boeing's health care and job security proposals and a company proposal to eliminate new hires from future retiree medical benefits.
Boeing said late Tuesday it hoped employees would look seriously at the offer.
"We'll let our employees decide," Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers said.
The fierce round of final negotiations occurs as Boeing is enjoying a strong rebound in its commercial airplanes division, giving the union a burst of confidence in talks.
Chicago-based Boeing is striving to beat Airbus SAS on new commercial jet orders for the first time since 2000. Boeing had racked up 529 orders through the end of July, compared with 299 orders for Airbus.
Airbus is ahead on deliveries so far, with 216 planes as of the end of July, compared with 179 for Boeing. Boeing expects to deliver 320 airplanes this year, and Airbus expects to deliver 360.
Boeing is also offering an incentive pay program that would provide five days of pay to Oregon and Washington workers if the company meets financial targets and up to 15 days' worth if the targets are exceeded. But it has dropped a $1,000 payout that was meant to jump-start that program, in exchange for increasing the lump-sum payouts.
Cost-of-living provisions would boost base wages by about 1 percent in each year of the contract.
The company also said it would offer two health plans with the option of no premium, though premiums would increase for most health care plans.
Bickers said Boeing continues to shoulder most worker health care costs, and defended its retirement package as one of the industry's best.
Analyst Richard Aboulafia with the Teal Group said union workers could expect to get other concessions but should expect a tough fight over pensions. That's because pensions represent a huge fixed cost that the company can't scale back in a downturn.
"I think they've found the one area that management cannot afford to give in to, just for the long-term health of the company," he said.
Still, Aboulafia said the union is in a strong position since Boeing cannot afford a long-term strike that would disrupt airplane production just as business is picking up.
yeah the unions are a pawn of the left... they are willing to be pawns in the lefts game to destroy they american economy what ever way they can. amazing!
... they are willing to be pawns in the lefts game to destroy they american economy what ever way they can. amazing!
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It reflects the level of sickness in the leftist mindset. They would destroy the very system that feeds them. Gross stupidity. The unions are nothing more than corporate extortionists, supported of course, by the radical left -- they have done so much damage to our country, it is unbelievable...education, industrial-destruction, just amazing ---
The Machinist Union is the worst there is.
I will vouch for that CWA and Corperate greed killed AT&T and forced the company up on the auction block. The unions outlived their usefulness about 40 years ago.
I will vouch for that CWA and Corperate greed killed AT&T and forced the company up on the auction block. The unions outlived their usefulness about 40 years ago.
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Union pandering covered alot more -- the U.S. steel industry GONE! Now the U.S. auto industry is dying due to union pandering. Gross incompetence and stupidity in management. Look at what it has cost us. And the beat goes on.
It at this point has reduced us to nation full of service industries...
$60,000 a year is a good chunk of money where I come from.
Still, Aboulafia said the union is in a strong position since Boeing cannot afford a long-term strike that would disrupt airplane production just as business is picking up.
There is a term to describe this, its called a "shakedown scam".
Great timing by the union. Let's pick a time when the company could potentially regain the lead against Airbus and lets do everything possible to destroy that chance.
And they will have full backing of the democrats.
I live in Seattle. The Boeing machinists are some of the biggest unionheads on the planet. Highschool dropouts who make 35 dollars and hour with full benefits to punch holes in metal and they constantly bitch about how hard they have it. They are soo brainwashed by the unions, they would be completely incapable of working in a non-union environment where you don't have the union telling you want to think and do.
there is very little impetus to keep working....
Nice touch! :)
The democrats in washington will make sure their voting base gets lush unemployment and special benefits during any strike.
In exchange, the unions contribute massively to their re-election campaign funds and the DNC.
All part of the shakedown scam.
there's a reason that boeing moved headquarters out of washington state
in a few years these unemployed machinists will be wondering why boeing doesn't build as many if any planes in washington state and cursing about all the work going overseas directly thru boeing and indirectly thru airbus
Note to the IAM: Go ahead, you idiots, and call a strike. Does the term "outsourcing" mean anything to you? You just may not have a job to come back to. You average almost $60,000 a year. And what percentage of you have more than a high-school education? If you choose to strike, it will be all the more obvious that you are first-class idiots. And you just might end up working in a gas station on Highway 99. Or flipping burgers at Wendy's.
Hope I have made myself clear!
Ping
Boeing no longer responds to strikes or community opinion. If the union goons don't want to work for those wages, Boeing will just have those parts made in India or China or some other foreign hole. A major part of Boeing planes are already made overseas and they just do final assembly here now.
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