Union walks, but Boeing won’t stop work
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008
The Boeing Co., whose order books are bulging with demand for its planes, was hit by its second major strike in three years early Saturday, when the union that represents 27, 000 machinists in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas walked off the job.
The union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said its members struck at 2: 01 a.m. CDT after last-minute talks failed. No new talks are scheduled.
Its plants would remain open during the strike, Boeing said, and employees who are not members of the machinists union are expected to work. The company said it would build airplanes during the walkout.
Talks broke down over a variety of issues, including pay, pensions and job security, a key point for the machinists, who have watched Boeing send work on its planes to other companies. The machinists assemble Boeing’s commercial planes and some key components.
About 100 union members hoisted their strike signs as soon as the strike was called outside the Boeing plant in Everett, Wash., cheering and blasting air horns at passing cars, many of which honked back.
If the strike lasts more than two weeks, union members will begin drawing $ 150 a week in strike pay. Typical pay for a union member is $ 27 an hour, or about $ 56, 000 a year before overtime and bonuses.
The strike is Boeing’s second in its last two sets of contract talks and the seventh since 1948. Boeing workers struck for a month in 2005.
The latest walkout came after Boeing and the union failed to reach agreement on a new three-year contract during negotiations in Orlando, Fla., that were supervised by a federal mediator.
The talks moved to a hotel outside Walt Disney World where the union was holding a national conference — from Seattle, the home of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and many of the company’s production sites.
The union agreed to extend its contract 48 hours late Wednesday.
The president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Scott E. Carson, said in a statement: “The differences were too great to close.” Boeing has a backlog of more than 3, 600 orders valued at $ 263 billion. The majority of those aircraft are versions of the Boeing 737, a short-range plane that is the world’s most popular.
Boeing, which earned a record $ 4. 1 billion in 2007, could easily withstand a short strike. A long walkout could cause more delays in the development of the Boeing 787, a long-range jet nicknamed the Dreamliner.
The Dreamliner is meant to be significantly more fuel-efficient than the Boeing 747, which the company has been making since 1970. The Dreamliner has encountered problems, which have pushed back its delivery date more than a year.
Analysts estimate that each day of delay could cost the company $ 100 million. During the last strike, Boeing missed deadline on more than two dozen airplanes.
“Talks with the Boeing Co. did not address our issues,” Tom Wroblewski, president of Machinists District Lodge 751 in Washington state, told members in an e-mail message. “If the company wants to talk, they have my number.” When the union agreed Wednesday to extend its contract, workers already had voted 87 percent in favor of a strike and 80 percent against Boeing’s last contract offer. Last week, Boeing posted what it called its best and final offer on its Web site and recessed talks to let workers consider the proposal over the Labor Day weekend.
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