SEATAC — The rain didn’t dampen the spirits of rallying Boeing Machinists on Sunday, nor did it drown out their cries of “strike, strike, strike.”
Thousands of Machinists braved the downpour to show Boeing that they’re serious about a strike if the aerospace giant doesn’t meet their demands in a three-year labor contract. Just 10 days before 24,000 Puget Sound area Machinists will vote on Boeing’s offer, union members gathered at the SeaTac hotel where round-the-clock negotiations are being held. With chants of “power, power, power to the union,” the Machinists rode motorcycles or marched down the street to get an update on contract talks from their leaders.
“We’re going to win this damn thing by disrupting the shop floor,” said Mark Blondin, aerospace coordinator for the international union.
The local district of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers doesn’t put forward the threat of a strike lightly. The men and women who build Boeing’s commercial jets withheld labor for 28 days from Boeing during the 2005 contract negotiations.
A strike would come at a tough time for Boeing. The company is struggling to get its new 787 Dreamliner jet on track after a delivery delay of at least 15 months. And Boeing has a record backlog of unfilled aircraft orders it needs to deliver on.
The company said it started talks with the Machinists early in hopes of resolving the noncontroversial issues before the two sides headed into the hotel for intense negotiations last week. Boeing leaders remain upbeat about progress.
“We expect the two sides will come closer together as these negotiations move toward completion,” wrote Doug Kight, Boeing’s lead negotiator, in a note Saturday.
The Machinists went into negotiations with four “strike” issues: preserving the bargaining unit, limiting the company’s future outsourcing, and retaining both pension and early retiree health insurance benefits for future and existing members.
Blondin said there was no use even talking about money issues, including wages, increases in pension and bonuses, until those four issues were resolved.
“There’s no way in hell” the Machinists would agree to a contract that eliminates early retiree medical benefits or traditional pension plans for future Machinists, Blondin said.
In its first full offer to the Machinists on Friday, Boeing withdrew its request to separate the Machinists in Wichita from the contract unit. The company saw it as a significant step toward meeting the Machinists’ demands.
The Machinists celebrated the decision Sunday.
“Wichita: They’re in this family to stay,” Blondin said.
But the three remaining strike issues remain unresolved and on the table. Boeing, instead, appeared to move further away from the Machinists on pension and retiree medical benefits. The company proposed to eliminate those benefits not only for new Machinists but also for any union member who has been laid off for more than six years.
Boeing wants to eliminate traditional pension plans for new Machinists, offering them a 401(k) type retirement plan instead. The company also wants to get rid of carrying health insurance for Machinists who retire before the age of 65. The union says these points would divide its membership.
In an industry that sees huge ups and downs, benefits and rights for Machinists who have been laid off are still key to union members. At the time of the last contract, in 2005, Boeing was just at the end of recalling Machinists the company had laid off after the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the industry in a massive downturn.
Three years later, however, Boeing has hired on thousands of new Machinists, who are eager to preserve their benefits and get a hike in pay. Entry-level Machinists can be hired for as low as $11.72 or $12.72 per hour. However, the average wage a Machinist makes is $27 per hour, as of about a year ago when Boeing last released that figure to the union, said Connie Kelliher, spokeswoman for the Machinists. With the influx of new Machinists making a lower wage, Kelliher expects the average to drop this year.
The union has not negotiated a general wage increase since 1999, choosing to fight for pension and health insurance in the leaner contract years of 2005 and 2002. Considering Boeing has a record commercial backlog in 2008, however, the Machinists expect raises across the board.
“It’s payback time,” Blondin said.
Boeing’s Kight has said that Machinists at the upper end of the pay scale already make above-average wages for the industry. Initially, Boeing indicated it may not be interested in across-the-board wage hikes but acknowledged that entry-level Machinists needed an increase.
In its first offer, Boeing proposed a $1.28 an hour increase in minimum rates. It also offered general wage increases of 2.5 percent in the first year of the contract and 2 percent in each of the remaining years. Those increases do not include cost-of-living adjustments.
But Blondin said the Machinists union has negotiated wage increases as high as 11 percent. And he sees no reason Boeing shouldn’t be able to come up in its offer.
The aerospace company has offered a $2,500 lump sum payment to Machinists in the first year of the contract and plans to include the union in an incentive program, though it’s not the program the union wanted.
The bonus didn’t impress one 12-year employee with the company. Ivana Stewart noted that the bonus would be much less, maybe $1,700, after taxes. So far, the Renton nurse isn’t happy with the offer Boeing has put on the table.
Tom Wroblewski, district president for the Machinists, said the union presented its counteroffer to Boeing on Saturday.
“Our proposal is aggressive,” Wroblewski said.
But “it’s time for them to move off their issues,” he said.
If Boeing’s final offer, which could come on Friday, isn’t everything the union wants, Blondin said he’ll encourage Machinists to “put down the tools and shut the company down.”
James Chesshire, who has worked with Boeing for a year, believes the company is trying to piecemeal out the negotiations. He’s interested in seeing the union get some guarantees on job security.
The way negotiations are going, Chesshire said, there’s an 83 percent chance the union will strike.
“It’s a good chance,” he said.
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