Corporate pigs win again. Boeing machinists approve contract.

[liberal_at_heart]

I'm speechless. I don't know what to say. Let's just hope the next time, and there will be a next time, Boeing does this, the machinists say no. They will keep chipping away at the Boeing union little by little till there is nothing left unless they start fighting back.

[Ranchemp.]

1. Ummmm, don't know what you're complaining about.

Maybe a link would help?
And, if your title is correct, what is your problem with the union voting approval of a new contract?

[regnaD kciN]

3. A little background...

This is the deal to build the 777X in Washington state, where Boeing originated.

The corporation (which has since moved to Chicago and is posting record profits, with massive bonuses for its top executives) negotiated a sweet deal with the state for tax breaks and other incentives. But then, it came back with an additional demand: that the Machinists Union, which already had a contract with them, renegotiate that contract in an "extension" which basically constituted giving back everything that made unionization desirable: Out goes the pension, in comes a 401K. Massive cuts to health coverage. A reworking of the salary structure so that new hires will have to wait a lot longer for each pay boost. And so on. And the company offered the workers...nothing. Well, basically, it offered them the chance to keep their jobs under the new terms, making it clear that, if the contract were rejected, Boeing would uproot those jobs (some estimate them at 56,000) and send them elsewhere, almost certainly to a "right-to-work" state where the workforce would be non-unionized.

In other words, the choice was: lower yourselves to the level of non-union workers or we'll give your jobs to non-union workers.

In the first vote on this, the union rejected the deal by a 2:1 margin. Boeing made some cosmetic changes to the offer, but gave up nothing on substance. The union's local leadership didn't even want to hold a second vote on the measure, but were ordered to do so by the national leadership in D.C., who also scheduled the vote in a way that meant that a large group of employees wouldn't be present to participate. And everyone from state (Democratic) politicians to the local media moved in lockstep to call for the union to cave, with doomsday scenarios on how rejection of the deal would bring economic disaster to the state.

And so, in the end, the Machinists "cried uncle." They get to keep their jobs -- but under terms that make them little better than any non-unionized assembly line in the country. One of the companies with the strongest union contract has successfully broken that union. And businesses everywhere have the blueprint to destroying any union that remains any time they want.

Yes, it was the union "voting approval of a new contract" -- but only in the sense that getting mugged at gunpoint constitutes a "charitable donation to the needy."

[Ranchemp.]

4. Thank you.

That sheds more light on the way Boeing negotiated a new contract and how DC strong armed the union to cave and vote to approve the new "contract".

Knowledge is power.

[El_Johns]

7. That's what comes of a company union.

"The union's local leadership didn't even want to hold a second vote on the measure, but were ordered to do so by the national leadership in D.C., who also scheduled the vote in a way that meant that a large group of employees wouldn't be present to participate."

[Teamster Jeff]

13. Yep

[pipoman]

12. Not necessarily. ..

"Boeing would uproot those jobs (some estimate them at 56,000) and send them elsewhere, almost certainly to a "right-to-work" state where the workforce would be non-unionized."

Disagree..almost certainly to a foreign country. ..like China, as they did with wichita. ..After all kansas is a "right-to-work " state, yet Boeing announced the wichita plant closure at the same time they announced the Chinese plant expansion of almost exactly the same amount of employees as were being eliminated in Wichita. ..coincidence?

One must always keep in mind that the enormous product Boeing produces couldn't be easier to transport to it's purchaser anyplace on the planet.

If you want to see the impending fate of Boeing Washington, you need look no further than Kansas. .keep in mind that Boeing was Kansas' largest employer prior to this. ..

[regnaD kciN]

2. "Next time?"...? There's no need for a next time -- this is total capitulation to the bosses

Now that the pension is history, there's little to differentiate the union contract from the non-union deals elsewhere -- and no chance to ever go back to what they had before.

Seriously, this is pretty much the end of the line for unions in America, except for federal workers. It's over.

[liberal_at_heart]

5. I will not vote for Inslee again. He has acted shamefully during this whole mess, not

to mention he also approves of the liquor control board effectively eliminating medical marijuana in WA. He will not get my vote next time.

[Major Nikon]

11. Federal unions can't negotiate over pay and benefits to begin with

And IIRC, no federal unions are closed shops either even in states that aren't "right to work".

[blkmusclmachine]

6. Drip drip drip

[Wounded Bear]

9. Well, I certainly don't trust Boeing to not renege on their end of the deal.

They want to move. They probably will, and the local economy will be screwed anyway.

[pampango]

14. That is one thing that German unions don't have to worry about - the transferring of jobs from

a 'union' province to a 'right-to-work' province. Thanks ever-so-much, Taft-Harley and other anti-union legislation.

[socialist_n_TN]

15. Well, they could take over the plants.....

and run them as a co-op.