Machinists union leaders called Tuesday night for a strike against the Boeing Co., saying the company’s final contract offer falls short on all the union’s key issues.
Boeing delivered its final contract offer Tuesday afternoon, bumping up pensions and offering workers the option of taking $6,000 in cash bonuses or depositing $9,000 into their retirement accounts.
But on the key issue of pensions, Boeing offered only a 10 percent increase – not even half of what the union had sought, said Mark Blondin, the International Association of Machinists’ district president.
| Lump-sum payments of $3,000 in each of the first two years of the three-year contract. Machinists can opt to roll those into their 401(k)-style Boeing retirement accounts. If they do, the company would match it by 50 percent of the contribution.
* A 2.5 percent raise for Puget Sound area workers in the third year of the contract, plus 1 percent cost-of-living increases each year. * Incentives that would award Machinists five days of extra pay if the company hits profit targets. * Two zero-premium options for health care insurance, although employees would be required to take part in wellness activities to qualify. * The average Machinist would make $62,000 a year at the contract’s end. |
“They offered six bucks,” he said. “That in itself would probably cause rejection.”
Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Alan Mulally appealed to union workers not to strike, saying a walkout would be “devastating to the Boeing Co. and everyone associated with the Boeing Co.”
“I just cannot emphasize enough what a strike would mean to us,” he added. “We would absolutely be walking away from our commitments to our customers. There’s just no way we would recover.”
Blondin said pickets will go up just after midnight Thursday, assuming that two-thirds of IAM members follow the recommendation and vote to strike.
“We’re well prepared,” he said. “We’ve got a big strike fund. We’ll take care of our people, and we’ll do it together.”
It would be the first Machinists union strike at Boeing since 1995.
Boeing on Tuesday offered:
* Lump-sum payments of $3,000 in each of the first two years of the contract. Machinists can opt to roll those payments into their 401(k)-style Boeing retirement account. If they do, the company will match it 50 percent, making the total $4,500 in each year.
* A 2.5 percent wage increase for Puget Sound workers in the third year of the contract, plus 1 percent cost-of-living increases each year.
* An incentive program that would award Machinists five days’ extra pay if the company hits profit targets – $1,100 on average. Payouts would be on a sliding scale that would give up to 15 days’ pay if the company surpasses the targets.
* Two zero-premium options for health insurance, although employees would be required to take part in wellness activities to qualify for them. Employees who pick health care options that have premiums could earn $20 monthly credits by taking part in wellness programs as well.
The average Machinist would earn about $62,000 annually at the end of the contract, Boeing said.
However, the company also proposed changes in work rules that would allow one worker to operate more than one machine at once.
Boeing proposed a $1 an hour premium for those workers, and said no Machinist would be laid off as a result of the change.
However, Blondin said Boeing negotiators hinted that those workers would be downgraded and put into other jobs.
Union negotiators said they could accept the proposal, Blondin said, but only if Boeing brought back more of the machine work that it has outsourced in recent years. Boeing refused.
“Instead of being proactive with this union, they wanted to take us on,” Blondin said.
Boeing also proposed trimming health care coverage for retirees, capping its share of the premiums at 95 percent, down from 98 percent.
Machinists didn’t ask for wage increases or cash bonuses, only better pensions, Blondin said. Instead ,Boeing offered “just a sell-out, take-away, job-stealing contract.”
Mulally defended the pension proposal, calling it “industry leading” and “the very most robust retirement plan we could.”
By combining the pension, the 401(k) program and Social Security benefits, Machinists will be able to “essentially just about replace your salary as you retire,” he said.
The contract also doesn’t address job-security issues, which were among the union’s top issues.
“The only security that all of us have at the Boeing Co. is that we remain viable and move forward,” Mulally said.
Boeing did offer to extend recall rights to workers laid off following the 2001 terror attacks, keeping their seniority and benefit rights intact.
Boeing also rejected union efforts to overhaul the process for picking team leaders in factories. The union wanted to have seniority be one of the factors considered, but Mulally said that with the current system – which doesn’t factor in seniority – “the results have been outstanding.”
Given that, “there was no reason for us to move away from that,” he said.
Blondin said workers are frustrated with the ethical lapses of top Boeing managers in recent years, which have “cost us jobs, programs, sales.” They were unhappy with the 2002 contract, which 62 percent voted to reject – not enough to trigger a strike.
This year, Boeing has surged back from the slump it hit after the 2001 terror attacks, Blondin noted. “You see an upswing and the future is looking bright – and they come in with a substandard offer. We have no choice but to shut down their operation.”
Mulally said if there is a strike, Boeing would be forced into an “orderly shutdown” of its Puget Sound operations.
“The IAM-represented employees are absolutely critical,” he said. “When you don’t have the heart and soul of the Boeing Co. here, you can’t design and build airplanes.”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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