On the picket line

Boeing machinists win—in record time!

It took 18,300 machinists only 24 days to force Boeing to fork over a three-year contract without givebacks. That’s the quickest settlement that the largest U.S. commercial jet manufacturer has made in four decades with its largest union. The contract, negotiated by the Machinists and Aerospace Workers, faces a vote on Sept. 29.

When the machinists shut down production Sept. 2 in Washington, Oregon and Kansas, Boeing CEO Alan Mulally bellyached that the two sides were “miles apart.” He even called the union’s demands “extreme.” Labor analysts fretted that if the strike failed it could be a setback for labor comparable to the air-traffic controllers’ strike in 1981.

Why didn’t that happen? Because Boeing, whose income last year was $1.9 billion, couldn’t bear to lose its stake in the strongest commercial aircraft market in five years. It desperately needed the machinists to keep planes rolling down the runway.

United under the union’s slogan of “No takeaways, no sellouts,” the workers demanded $1 billion more than Boeing’s initial offer. “We took a pretty rough contract [in 2002] because times were tough, with the expectation that when things got better, we’d get a lot more,” said parts marker James Darrah.

“But now times are good for Boeing. Its stock price is double what it was three years ago.” (New York Times, Sept. 13) In fact, last year Boeing’s profits were more than triple its profits in 2002.

In the three-year contract Boeing agreed not to increase premiums or deductibles in the workers’ health plan, to increase the pension multiplier to $70 a month for every year worked (up from $66) and to drop its earlier demands that new hires not receive retiree health benefits and that machinists in Kansas receive lower pay than other workers. It also agreed to give workers a 1 percent annual cost-of-living increase and to make cash payments to each worker of $4,800 the first year and $3,000 in each of the next two years.

Industry analysts admit that Boeing had to yield to the workers or risk losing a lot more if the strike dragged on. Even so, 30 plane deliveries will be delayed because of the strike. Some predict this contract could be a blueprint for Boeing’s 12,650 engineers and 5,700 technical workers, whose contracts are due to expire in early December.

Others say the workers’ victory is empowering for all labor. That would be a welcome trend!

Bus drivers stage one-day strike

Fed up because Capital Metro wants to pay new hires 16 percent less than current drivers, bus drivers in Austin, Texas, staged a surprise one-day unfair labor practices strike on Sept. 22. Metro management had to scramble to keep 17 of 80 bus lines operating, but was able to provide only reduced service.

Several hundred Transit Union Local 1091 drivers picketed Metro headquarters with fight-back signs and chants demanding a fair contract. Their last one expired in June. Local 1091 President Jay Wyatt explained that the union called the strike for one day to minimize the public’s pain, but the union was prepared to do it again and again with no notice if Metro refused to bargain in good faith.