Posted on 09/01/2005 8:38:22 PM PDT by anymouse
Boeing Co. Machinists voted Thursday to strike as union members overwhelmingly rejected a three-year contract proposal their leaders had deemed "insulting." Union members voted 86 percent in favor of a strike beginning at 12:01 a.m. local time Friday. Under union rules, the contract would have been automatically ratified -- and workers would have stayed on the job -- unless two-thirds of the union members voted to strike.
The strike will affect about 18,400 Machinists who assemble Boeing's commercial airplanes and some key components in the Seattle area, Gresham, Ore., and Wichita, Kan.
Company officials said earlier in the week that a strike would be devastating, forcing the company to slowly shut down commercial airplane production.
Leaders of the Seattle-based Machinists Lodge 751 had urged its members to "reject this insulting Boeing proposal," saying it fell woefully short on top issues including pension payments and increased health care costs. District Lodge 751 is negotiating for employees in all three states, although some terms differ based on location.
Chicago-based Boeing has defended its retirement proposal as one of the best in the industry, and the company said that despite some medical-cost increases it would continue to shoulder the bulk of workers' health care costs.
The union last went on strike in 1995, when workers walked out for 69 days.
Let's try to elevate the level of debate here. I am not trying to start a flame war. I am not a troll. I am a long time freeper.
These pensions do not adjust for inflation after you retire so they will never go up.
Actually you comment can't be called debate.
I specifically came to this topic to try to give some persepective. If anybody would like to here what an insider (but not a union member) has observed then ask me a question.
I heard the contract sucked.
I admit Boeing is trying to rip them off.
But, it is hard to have sympathy when the unionists NEVER seem to be satisfied with anything. All you hear from the Wichita station is "and Boeing workers strike yet again..."
It is hard to keep sympathy when all they do is whine.
Please explain how BAD their retirement plan is now....especially if they weren't even asking for more money. Things can't be all that bad. I'm just glad I sold my BA stock today when I saw this potential strike coming.
Where is President Reagan. I'd fire these pri!cks permanently. Just as he did with the air traffic controllers' strike. I believe we have enough out of work machinists that could back-fill the resource demand.
LEt's not assume this is all about greed. I told you they didn't ask for money in their direct pay but a little better retirement plan.
I was helping my mom do some retirment planning. Her teachers retirement formula in New Mexico (not a rich state) was 2.3 times better than mine.
You're right a good job is a blessing...not everyone has..
or is thankful for apparently...
You kidding? To these thugs the time couldn't have been better.
That's AirBust, not Airbus. They lift and are easy to take-off.
That is unfair.
Guess it's their decision, not yours or mine. Insinuating they're not "real Americans" is a little much though. I don't personally know anything about their issues so I'm willing to assume they're striking in their own interests, which to me seems very American.
We'll see which side wins, and/or which side goes whining to Big Stupid Government to intervene, or starts slashing tires or other goonish things.
Do you have any concept what it would cost the company to disrupt production for even a few months to retrain new workers?
It takes two to have a strike. The company could have avoided this strike as easily as the union.
My union went on strike a few years ago. While we were out we did something that the IAM has never been able to achieve. We completely shut down deliveries instantly. (Boeing only gets paid when they deliver airplanes). Now the company loves to talk about looking out for shareholders. But while we were out the stock fell $12 (about $12,000,000,000 reduction in shareholder value), I estimated that it would have cost $120,000,000 to avoid the strike. So it was a 100 to one loss. How is that the comany looking out for shareholder value.
BTW when we came back they extended some of the benefits that we won in the strike to about twice as many non represented employees even though they said it would bankrupt the company to do it for us.
It takes two.
So a union is needed nowadays to simply negotiate retirement plans and raises.
Why can't workers do this on their own?
Are strikes for worker "health and safety" issues too passe anymore?
I've worked for the same company for ten years. Funded my own 401k, kicked in my own health contributions. I've adjusted my budget accordingly.
In return I've averaged raises of 10% a year, have stock options and received bonues. The amount of all have varied with the company's fortunes.
Like others on this thread I am virulently anti-union. They are not needed anymore and are a pox on company health and worker productivity.
They are lucky to have jobs, let alone a retirement plan. Boeing workers have the best benefit package of any comparable aerospace or other large company.
If these pukes don't want to work for better wages and benefits than most of the rest of the country, I'm sure there are a lot of people along the Gulf coast that would gladly take their place.
Ever heard of Bethlehem Steel? The unions pulled the same stunt. Go to Bethlehem, PA and take a look at the mill.
*rolling eyes*
There are too many people who do not understand Economics or Accounting, or SIMPLE business practices and logic.
Hey mister, I will sell a glass og lemonade to you for 10 cents. It only cost me 15 cents to sell you this glass of lemonade. Add on another cent for the distibution costs and I'll only lose 6 cents. But, my marketing manager says that we will make up the profits in volume...
Oh, Christ, and you're IAM.
Getting ready to take down another airline, are ya?
Secure those jobs for those mechanics.
I get the IAM magazine. The union leadership appears to be all communists.
I live in Everett, and this is the union bamboozling their membership. While I would agree that Boeing management has made their share of mistakes, and that their pay is on the extravagant side, they brought the company back to profitability, and they head-faked Airbus into building that monster plane, the 380.
Management also gambled on the dreamliner and won, plus they managed to extend the lives of the 767 and 747 lines all at the same time - saving the Renton plant and all of the jobs down there.
Here's the facts - their the best paid people in the region that don't have degrees. They have the best benefits, a retirment plan (what is that?), and now they get profit sharing to boot.
The machinists - those big-hearted, team-player types, who've commemorated the spirit of labor/management harmony by putting a bronze statue of workers picketing around a burn barrell - are handing the market to Europe.
I knew Boeing would rue the day they chose Everett to build the dreamliner. They could have set up a non-union shop in Texas and they didn't.
Morons to the last 14% of them.
You know what I'd love to see, Washington state repeal the closed shop law that requires union dues be paid in certain professions. I'd love to see how many opt in for that deal after the union would have to actually compete for members.
I wouldn't disagree with that and I wouldn't trust the leadership and farther than I could throw them. But I wouldn't condemn all of the members as mind numbed robots. They read the contract.
(Heck without any input form the union I saw the contract and thought "oh, crap here we go".
You know sometimes the company wants a strike.
I don't disagree with you. You have also probably accepted a lot more risk. (actually these guys have a lot of risk as our business is very cyclical)
These jobs and the union wages are definitly the exception these days. But can you blame people for wanting to hang on to that?
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