Boeing isn’t interested in long-term labor “peace” with its Machinists, the president of the local union district told members in his monthly column.
Tom Wroblewski, president of IAM 751, pointed to recent negotiations between Machinists and other aerospace companies as evidence that the union can negotiate (amicably and successfully) with aerospace companies.
“It’s become clear that Boeing’s pleas for ‘labor peace’ are about as sincere as a card-cheat’s smile,” Wroblewski wrote.
Machinists signed a three-year deal with Triumph Composites in Spokane last month. The union’s workers in Kansas inked a 10-year deal with Boeing and Airbus supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
Boeing Machinists in St. Louis voted last week to accept a new contract, one that does away with the company’s defined pension plan for employees hired after January 2012 and offers them, instead, a plan more similar to a 401(k). Union leaders had recommended that members reject the contract.
Wroblewski says that Boeing’s “game plan is obvious. It is systematically eliminating employee
pensions . …They follow a regular pattern, so I’ve no doubt that Boeing will come after our new hires’ pensions in 2012.”
Boeing and the Machinists discussed a long-term contract last year as the company was trying to decide where to locate its second 787 final assembly line. The deal fell through and Boeing picked South Carolina, rather than Washington, as the second assembly site.
Boeing spokesman Tim Healy noted that the Machinists in Kansas only accepted Spirit’s long-term deal by default. Fifty-seven percent of the voting members rejected the contract offer; 58 percent voted to strike. The union requires that two-thirds of the members vote in favor of a strike in order to initiate one. Without enough votes for a strike, by default, the Machinists accepted Spirit’s offer.
Like the local Machinists, Boeing has maintained it was serious about talks with the Machinists last fall for a long-term contract in order to land the second site.
Despite Boeing’s pick of Charleston, Healy said the talks with the Machinists last year were useful.
“We talked about some of the critical issues in a more productive way than (we had) before,” Healy said.
The local Machinists’ contract with Boeing comes up for negotiations again in 2012.
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