Boeing workers in South Carolina reject union

[Heidi]

Source: Reuters

Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:03pm EDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Workers at a Boeing Co plant in South Carolina voted on Thursday to decertify the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers as their union.

Robert Wood, a representative for the machinists, said in an email that 68 voted in favor of union representation, while 200 voted to decertify the union at the Charleston plant that was formerly owned by Vought Aircraft Industries.

"We are pleased that hourly workers expressed their desire to deal directly with the company on employment matters without any intermediary," Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said in a statement.

Boeing bought the plant in July. The facility makes part of the fuselage of the delayed 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which is expected to make its first flight this year.

The election was held by the National Labor Relations Board after some workers at the plant filed a petition to decertify the union.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5896ZJ20090910

[Hawkowl]

1. Next time, let SC secede.....nt

[Nickster]

2. Wow, I hope they enjoy it when Boeing moves their jobs somewhere or gives them a huge pay cut.

[Heidi]

6. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6453243

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. They'll close the place down & send te work to Wichita anyway.

[DebbieCDC]

4. They're trying to get that second assembly line for the Dreamliner moved from WA to SC

And if they do, just wait and see what happens when their wages are slashed and benefits banished and no union to fight for them. Boeing and the union here in WA had a knock down drag out strike recently (last year I think).

My father, a member of the Machinists' Union, is no doubt spinning in his grave right this minute at the ignorance on display here.

Oh, and good luck with that Dreamliner. Something like 7 postponements to date. I'm willing to bet that thing will never fly.

[KT2000]

20. Exactly!

that particular aerospace company is getting really good at "blackmail tactics." I would love to know how many times they have threatened to leave WA if they did not get their way.

What they (SC) do not seem to get is that the ultimate destiny for this company's manufacturing is China. As I heard it - parts for the 787 are being made in China - arriving empty of the components that are supposed to be inside.

I do not plan on ever flying in the 787. Boeing used to stand for the best of the best - no more.

[DissedByBush]

30. The 787 is made in many places

But no major parts come from China. It's made in the US with major parts from Australia, Canada, Italy and Japan, and smaller bits from Russia and India at least.

The 787 will be the best. It is delayed because it is a major revolution in airliner design and manufacturing. There are a lot of kinks to be worked out when you're the first one ever doing something this big.

[IDFbunny]

47. They HAVE left WA and are now in Chicago

They have sold their soul and are becoming a great has been. Over the next couple of decades will probably off shore everything.

[KT2000]

49. Well, yes - their headquarters

are in Chicago but there are still plants in Everett, Renton, Seattle and Kent that I know of.

it is so sad - my dad would be so sad to see what is going on. he started when Boeing was still making furniture downstairs and designing planes in the loft. Everyone carried the immense responsibility of keeping the flying public safe. I cannot imagine that the outsourced facilities feel the weight of that concern.

[IDFbunny]

52. After WA gave huge incentives they were given the finger

anyway. As the life cycle of those legacy planes ends, so do the plants. That's decades away but just as certain. Boeing's management is penny-wise-dollar-foolish in flipping off high quality workers for the cheap Chinese and SC scabs. It's their attitude that's the root of all these 787 problems. I'm sure there wouldn't be half the delay if they hadn't outsourced so much. For these delays management gets paid the big bucks?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. I sit here, shaking my head,

wondering what is wrong with some people.

To decertify?

It makes no sense............................

[David Zephyr]

7. South Carolina rejected Child Labor Laws, civil rights and even the Union itself.

It's South Carolina. Charleston should demand to be declared a non-contiguous part of any state it wishes. I'm sure that those of us in California would swap parts of Orange County for Charleston. Hmmm.

[Iowa]

8. More evidence of the dumbing down of America.

[DebbieCDC]

9. People forget what the unions did for the workers.

When my dad was on strike many times when I was a kid, the union strike benefit was the only source of money coming into our house (my mother didn't work outside the house).

[Libertas1776]

12. They did a shitload of things for us, including

getting u a little thing called the Weekend. Pity, now, when Labor Day means nothing more than the end of summer for most of Americans. In their warped little revised histories, the corporations and powerful monopolies simply gave us the 5 day work week, the 8 hour work day, and the weekend out of the kindest of their solid gold hearts.

[Libertas1776]

10. 50 years ago

Upwards of 50% of this country was proudly unionized. Today, my god where did we go wrong? (On a side note: I do know where we went wrong and his name was Raygun) I hope every last on of those 200 fuckers gets fucked over. 200 non unionized machinists are going to bargain directly with a giant multi billion dollar corporation? In their warped Rethug dreams. There job s won't be there for much longer. Morans.

[DebbieCDC]

11. No shit. Ray-guns was the beginning of all this

I had just gotten out of college and moved to DC when he busted PATCO. Then they put his fucking name on that airport. Every time I hear someone say "Reagan National" instead of "National" I spit on that bastard's name.

[Libertas1776]

15. Renaming Washington National Airport

after a man that absolutely despised the city, what a joke that was. That's like re-naming a brewery after the Rev. Billy Sunday.

[DebbieCDC]

16. DC citizens hated him just as much

Then the little deputy came along and surpassed even the Ray-gun hatred of DC-ites.

[Libertas1776]

17. Of course they did,

and rightfully so. DC is probably the bluest place in the country. Pity all those Repubs have to hold their meetings there and stink up the place. :puke:

[DebbieCDC]

18. DC is a blue as the sky that's for sure

I'll bet there aren't 1,000 registered Repukes in the whole city (note I am NOT including the farther out burbs -- Prince Wm. County for instance). 'Course I moved from DC 6 years ago and things may be changing in the Red burbs by now.

[Libertas1776]

19. Let's hope so

Let that blue spread and spread :)

[bertman]

13. South Carolina. Joe Wilson. Mark Sanford. Strom Thurmond. Need I say more?

[DebbieCDC]

14. What a lineup.

[sasquatch]

24. Well if it looks like a duck...you know the rest.

[Zgrrl]

21. Stupid is as stupid does...

I feel really sorry for the 68 people who voted in favor of representation. They got totally f***ed by the ignorant 200.

[Blue_Tires]

22. ugh..just a few days after Labor Day, too.....

[Vinnie From Indy]

23. Blame Rush Limbaugh~!

I have no doubt that many of these highly ignorant people are willfully ignorant Limabugh listeners. If it were not so tragic, I would laugh at all of the voters for decertifying when their pay and benefits are cut or their jobs suddenly disappear.

[LibDemAlways]

25. The managers no doubt are chomping at the bit to cut their

hours, pay, and benefits, if not fire them outright. And then who will stand up and fight for them? Nobody. Idiots.

[pauldg0]

26. Many of the managers will be out too....

...I was a manager at Chrysler now I'm unemployed. Much of the seating and interior went out to China.

[LibDemAlways]

36. I'm familiar with Boeing management from an insider's

perspective. It's a good old boy's club, and once you're in, you're pretty much set. If you screw up, you just get moved someplace else within the company. Boeing is full of useless managers who've been there for years, do nothing, and are sitting around waiting to retire.

I'm not making any generalizations about managers in other companies or industries. I know there are fine people in management, and I know that many have been screwed by upper management decisions - which sounds like what happened to you.

Just saying that based on experience, Boeing management tends to be lazy, stupid, and incompetent. Those workers are in for a rude awakening if they are expecting to be treated fairly.

By the way, I hope you find another job soon. Sending good vibes.

[IDFbunny]

48. Don't worry,

they'll make it up in executive compensation.

[The Magistrate]

27. Well, Ma'am, We Know Where Two hundred Idiots Can Be Readily Found Now....

[Heidi]

29. Sir!

If I may be so bold: :hug:

[depakid]

28. Suckers...

[hayu_lol]

31. IAM is one of the really good unions too...

SC just cut it's own collective throat.

Individual workers cannot deal with mega-corporations by themselves.

[depakid]

33. hard to have any respect for folks who cut off their noses to spite their ideological faces

Small wonder their state's impoverished.

[New Dawn]

32. Hope they enjoy working at McDonalds/Wal Mart after their jobs get sent overseas.

[thelordofhell]

34. "We are pleased that hourly workers expressed their desire to deal directly with the company....."

Better start filing for food stamps now guys, your next raise will be when hell freezes over.

[thelordofhell]

35. This just in.......68 people will be laid off tomorrow......

At the Boeing Co. plant in South Carolina

[happygoluckytoyou]

37. JOBS WILL MOVE FROM KANSAS.... they will shut Kansas plant... THAT WAS THE BRIBE

[Solly Mack]

38. Were they wearing their "Kick me" signs?

[onager]

39. But once upon a time in SC...

(My home state, BTW.)

The textile workers' strike of 1934 was the largest strike in United States history at the time, involving 400,000 textile workers from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the U.S. Southern states, lasting twenty-two days.

The strike's ultimate failure and the union's defeat left the Southeastern United States an unorganized and anti-union region for the next 50 years...

Textile workers across the region, from worsted workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts and silk weavers in Paterson, New Jersey, to cotton millhands in Greenville, South Carolina, engaged in hundreds of isolated strikes, even though there were thousands of unemployed workers ready to take their places.

Within a week, almost 400,000 textile workers nationwide had left their jobs and the textile industry was shut down.

Governor Blackwood of South Carolina...called out the National Guard with orders to shoot to kill any picketers who tried to enter the mills. Governor Ehringhaus of North Carolina followed suit on September 5.

Violence between guards and picketers broke out almost immediately: in Trion, Georgia, a picketer and mill guard died in a shootout and guards killed two picketers in Augusta, Georgia on September 2.

Six picketers were shot to death and more than twenty other picketers wounded, most shot in the back as they were fleeing the picketline, in Honea Path, South Carolina on September 6.

I had elderly relatives who worked in the Honea Path mill, but nobody ever mentioned the strike to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_workers_strike_(1934)

[Brickbat]

40. Dealing with the company "directly" on employment matters, eh? Can't wait to see those paychecks!

Because yeah, a guy in a room by himself with the bean counters is SO much more effective than having someone, you know, BARGAIN on his behalf. Hyuck-hyuck, he'll show them! He'll show everyone! He's his own man! And he KNOWS he's special to the company because they told him not to tell ANYONE how much he's making, because he's making SO MUCH MORE than everyone else that if the others found out, they'd be jealous and mad and THEY'D want that much money just because HE was getting that much money!

Oh, the company will take care of him, all right. Good thing he's not having to pay those union dues anymore -- of course, rumor has it health premiums will go up next year, so that'll wipe out the savings on dues, but at least he knows that's coming and he's standing on his own two feet! And he's standing on his own two feet because they took away the stools to sit on on the assembly line, because some consultant came in and said they work faster when they're standing, and that's been giving him back trouble these last few nights, but he'll get used to it. He asked his buddy about it in the lunch room at break, but they had to stop talking about it because the supervisor came in and said lunch break was over, even though they'd had only 20 minutes instead of the 30 they used to get...oh well...at least the union isn't there anymore...

[paparush]

41. Hey,SC, if at first you don't secede.... eom

[guitar man]

42. Congratulations dumbasses

Now your top execs have contracts and you don't :banghead:

[raccoon]

43. I don't know why so many SC'ers are anti-union. Usually, it's the people who'd benefit most from

a union.

[saigon68]

44. They still remember Gen Sherman

And long for the good old days when darkies were bought and sold.

[nxylas]

45. Makes me wonder what tactics management used to secure that vote to decertify

Not that SC is exactly a hotbed of pro-union sentiment, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was some pressure brought to bear.

[DebbieCDC]

50. Not pressure -- promise of bringing the jobs to SC

"Decertify the union and you get the jobs...keep the union and we stay in WA or KS" or wherever

[WriteDown]

46. Temptation...

Dissolve the union and we'll bring a 2nd assembly line to SC. That is a REALLY tough decision. Boeing knew that they had the workers in a vice.

[CatholicEdHead]

51. Sad to hear they did that

Good luck to them in the future without union representation.

[Doremus]

53. They don't need no steeekin' employment contract

....or so they think.

Just wait.

I will stifle my enjoyment when the inevitable occurs for the sake of the 68 souls who had no choice.

[BreweryYardRat]

54. Idiots.

Man, talk about voting against your own best interests.