Local labor influence takes hit in Boeing contract

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By PHUONG LE

SEATTLE (AP) - Under pressure from national union leaders, machinists in Washington state took a late-night vote that defied their local union bosses by narrowly approving a new labor contract that secures a coveted plane project for the Seattle area but moves workers away from pensions.

The tight count exposed deep rifts in the once-powerful union, but with plenty of states lining up to give Boeing exactly what it wanted to get work on the 777X, the aerospace giant had a tremendous advantage.

The company, the state's governor and national union leaders all hailed the contract as a vital boost to the region's economy, but to some observers the vote dealt a blow to local union influence.

"It shows that even a strong local is vulnerable and has a limited defensibility to slow the tide of concessions that has been going on across the country," said Leon Grunberg, a sociology professor at the University of Puget Sound who co-authored a book, "Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers."

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140105/DAB4BR3O2.html

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Jim Bearden, administrative assistant for District 751 of the Boeing machinists union, tells reporters that workers voted to accept Boeing's latest contract offer to keep the assembly of the Boeing 777X airplane in Washington state, Friday, Jan. 3, 2014, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

[iandhr]

1. I won't judge them for voting to accept the cuts.

They were between a rock and a hard place.

[Demo_Chris]

2. It was that or lose their jobs...

That's what happens when there are more people in need of work than there are jobs available.

[GETPLANING]

3. Boeing acted out of pure greed, and malice.

Boeing is making record profits. But they just demanded that the people who actually build their aircraft take huge pay cuts. To show how willing they were to share the sacrifice, Boeing's top tier of management just gave themselves a 20% pay raise, plus they granted themselves a fresh batch of stock options. Boeing has so much cash on hand, they are launching a stock buyback. This makes shares that remain in the market go up in value. When the holders of those options cash in, they will make more of a killing on the options than they will in terms of salaries and bonuses.
This was a strategically planned and executed attack on Boeing's workers and particularly their union, and also a shameless grab of wealth from the working class of Washington State to line the pockets of Boeing's management and shareholders. The pity of it is, the people who build these planes will never be able to buy a ticket to fly on one, if Boeing management has its way.

[Populist_Prole]

4. +1

Hard to believe this was once one of the more admired US companies, and one that was a standard bearer for one of the few net exporters in heavy industry as the US policy deliberately went from manufacturing to service. Now they're just more or less a brand that gleefully eats its seed corn.

[freebrew]

7. Admired? Not here...

a good friend worked for MacDonell-Douglas(St. Louis) when Boeing bought them out. That was long ago, labor cuts were the rule then, it seems they haven't changed.

The city has been the target of RW assholes for a long time and was the unfortunate loser(or rather pawn) in this latest situation. Even our so-called Dem governor gave in to the tax cuts to get them here setting the bar ever lower for working folk.

[seabeckind]

5. Hard enough dealing with scab workers...

next to impossible to deal with scab STATES...

Race to the bottom.

Beggar thy neighbor.

No wonder we have a stagnant economy and unemployment. Didn't there used to be a federal...

Oh never mind. We ain't got a federal anything.

[seabeckind]

8. Thinking of scabs

the "leaders" of those same scab states, eg Pence in Indiana,

are much more the kin of the people who would deliberately spend millions to break a union by hiring scabs, than the men whose jobs were being lost or cheapened.

Actually, I can't think less of Pence.

[JDPriestly]

9. Scab states exist because union workers are not organizing.

Union leaders need to organize people in the IT profession and in other jobs that have not been organized in the past. Employees are generally lacking in clout because the traditions of union organizing have not kept pace with the reality of the job market. The fast-food workers should have been much better organized long ago. Of course working people will vote Fox Republican in droves if the alternative does not welcome them. And the fact is that unions beginning with the Reagan era did not change direction or organizing methods as free trade and its damage to workers' pay and rights took its toll. Labor organizers need to catch up.

Unions have fought to protect their turf but have not worked hard enough to sell the idea of a union to workers in states hostile to the idea of organized labor. It's been too much about negotiating a specific contract for a specific group of union members and not enough about working for all employees at all levels.

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce is this big, broad, inclusive organization that instructs its members on how to squeeze the most out of employees while giving the least. The message of the Chamber of Commerce has squeezed out the message of the labor unions.

[seabeckind]

10. Nope.

A scab state is one like Indiana that bid over a billion dollars to "woo" Boeing away from WA. It promised free lands and infrastruture and no union cause it's a right to work state.

The same thing happened with the 787 but in that case Boeing moved the plant because the concessions which labor agreed to couldn't match SC(?)s offer.

It's really hard for a union to try to negotiate when there are other states (7, 9 in this case?) underbidding the workers.

It's a beggar-thy-neighbor tactic and works quite well because the states can do that. What we need is a national policy on labor and a national position on salaries and benefits. Force the croporation to bid based on a level playing field so that when labor sits down at the table they are representing national labor positions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggar_thy_neighbor

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_to_the_bottom

[JDPriestly]

11. That is a good idea, but unless labor gets a bigger voice in the media and organizes people

including clerical personnel who work for diverse small employers, any federal bill that would pass through both houses would probably not be pro-employees.

[dotymed]

6. The race to the bottom.

Now, even with Union representation, workers must be screwed financially or lose their jobs.
It is happening everywhere.
"share our hard times, take a pay cut" while the CEO and execs. get huge raises......

[Blue_Tires]

12. more coverage:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-boeing-union-fight-20140107,0,6877900.story