Same union. Same company. Same issues. Same timing. Totally different outcomes.
That about sums up this year’s contract talks between the Boeing Co. and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
Last week, roughly 18,000 Puget Sound engineers and technical workers voted by more than a 4-to-1 margin to approve a new three-year contract with Boeing. On Monday in Kansas, however, Wichita engineers rejected a separate Boeing contract by more than 2-to-1, and are now going back to the drawing board.
What happened? I talked to the only guy I know who was involved in both sets of negotiations, SPEEA executive director Charles Bofferding. His take on it: the different Boeing business units have different approaches to labor relations.
From the outside, I told Charlie, it seemed like the Puget Sound contract talks were a major lovefest. I got the impression, I said, that the negotiating teams were sitting around a campfire outside the Red Lion in SeaTac, roasting s’mores, holding hands and singing “Kumbaya.”
Charlie laughed. “To the external world it may have looked easy, but inside the hotel it certainly wasn’t easy,” he said.
There were some tense periods during the talks, Bofferding said. But the two negotiating teams remained focused on working together toward a common goal – a contract that both sides could support.
“It was based on problem-solving, not a public fight,” he said. “It’s about how we can work together to build the best product.”
In the end, Bofferding said, this approach worked so well that he believes it “fundamentally changed the way Boeing negotiates with SPEEA in Puget Sound.”
So what happened in Wichita, Charlie?
“Management,” he said, “is trying to force a contract on us that we don’t want.”
According to Bofferding, the difference is that while negotiators with Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes group in Renton committed to working with the union, the negotiators with Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems unit in Wichita are following hard-line, old-school negotiating tactics, trying to beat the union at the bargaining table instead.
For its part, Boeing says that it offered SPEEA in Wichita a “region-leading contract,” company spokesman Forrest Gossett told The Wichita Eagle. Statements issued by the company emphasize Boeing’s desire for “working together with our engineering community to build a solid future for IDS-Wichita.”
If that’s the case, Bofferding argues, Wichita negotiators should take a page from their Puget Sound colleagues.
Elsewhere in the world, Qantas could announce – at any time now – whether it’s going to order long-range jets from Boeing or Airbus.
Various news reports from Australia say an announcement on the order, which could be as big as 100 jets and worth $15 billion, will come before the Australian stock market starts trading Thursday morning, which would be mid-day today here in the New Jet City.
Pundits say Boeing’s almost a lock to sell 20 or 30 777s to Qantas, particularly since rising fuel costs have made less-efficient Airbus A340s less appealing.
The contest between Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s is closer, however, and there’s some speculation that Qantas may split that portion of the order, buying some A350s for its proposed new low-cost airline, JetStar, while adding 787s to its mainline Qantas fleet.
Both Boeing and Airbus were making 11th-hour pitches, according to Australian news reports on Tuesday.
For more background on the Qantas deal and other aerospace industry news, visit Bryan Corliss’ Web log at www. heraldnet.com/blogaerospace.
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