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In the meantime, out in the world, Boeing and the International Association of Machinists met in Seattle this week for the first time since the union representing the company’s rocket-building workers went on strike nine weeks ago. (Why Seattle? Not sure. Perhaps it was a suitable neutral site — Boeing doesn’t have any space-oriented business units on Puget Sound, and the Machinists involved in the walkout are in a different district from the one that represents jet builders.)
The talks did not go well, The Decatur Daily http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060111/boeing.shtml and Florida Today http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060110/BUSINESS/601100326/1003 report.
Key Quote 1 (from The Decatur Daily): “The talks, requested by Boeing to ‘inventory the issues,’ were the first since employees went on strike Nov. 2. Both company and union officials said the talks, in Seattle, were unproductive. They did not schedule future talks.”
Key Quote 2 (from Florida Today): “Robert Wood, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the union offered suggestions for restarting negotiations. The company balked. ‘We were there to find common ground, and they were not,’ he said.”
As a result, Boeing is now looking at its options, a spokesman told The Huntsville Times. http://www.al.com/business/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/business/1136974633135750.xml&coll=1
Key Quote 3: “Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said the company was ‘very disappointed’ with the outcome of Monday’s meeting. Beck said the company decided to consider alternative work force plans following the meeting, but he said it was too soon to provide details.”
These Machinists are in a different district than the ones who were on strike against Boeing last fall. But some of the issues are familiar to anyone who followed that 28-day walkout: the union says Boeing’s proposed pay increases would be wiped out by rising health care costs, and they’re opposed to the company’s proposal to cut retiree health benefits to future hires.
This strike involves some 1,500 Boeing rocket builders in Alabama, California and Florida. So far, it’s forced the delay of three rocket launches, although Florida Today reports that Boeing managers have finished a rocket that NASA will use to launch a mission to Pluto next week.
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