Machinists union negotiators have dismissed the Boeing Co.’s initial contract offer, calling it “an insult” to workers who carried the company through its recent hard times.
The offer, which was presented by the company Wednesday morning, “failed to come close” on any of the major issues, union leaders told rank-and-file Machinists in an e-mailed memo. “The proposal we saw today is far off the mark and shows they just don’t get it.”
The union said it was preparing a counterproposal.
Boeing’s lead negotiator, Jerry Calhoun, issued a statement saying the company will “consider and respond to (that) with the same spirit of give-and-take that we have approached these negotiations from the outset.”
Neither side released specifics of the offer. Boeing spokesman Chaz Bickers said the numbers are likely to change often as the talks continue.
But in a memo to managers, Calhoun said the offer includes bonuses, pay increases and improvements to the pension plan, plus several “provisions to enhance job security,” which would be a first. Boeing in 2002 insisted that it could not offer the kind of job guarantees that the union sought.
The offer also contains what Calhoun called “several health care plans that expand choice and improve quality … structured so that Boeing continues paying the vast majority of health care costs.”
In all, the offer “keeps Boeing among the premier companies in terms of our overall package of pay, retirement and health care benefits,” Calhoun’s memo said.
However, union negotiators told members that the Boeing health care proposal amounted to a “take-away” that would cost individuals more money. Boeing’s proposed pension increase was “very meager,” they said, and the job-security proposals amounted to virtually nothing.
The contract also doesn’t address the union’s desire to overhaul the process of picking team leaders on the factory floor, negotiators said.
On the whole, the offer is “an insult to the people who have made this company great,” union leaders said. “In the past three years, during some of the most difficult times in company history, Boeing has tripled (its) profits mainly because of your efforts. The thanks you get is a direct slap in the face.”
The reaction among Everett factory workers was restrained, said Patti Cline, a Machinist from Granite Falls. Veteran union workers saw the exchange as just the first round of bargaining, she said.
“There’s very few people who are saying ‘strike’ right now,” Cline said. “We still have almost a week.”
However, she said, a huge crowd of workers in union T-shirts took part in a lunchtime march through the factory as a show of union solidarity.
In his memo, Calhoun said he expected contract talks to continue into the weekend.
The union is set to vote on Boeing’s final contract offer Sept. 1. The company has said it will deliver its final offer by Tuesday.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@ heraldnet.com.
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