Hawker Beechcraft machinists vote against contract (a 10 percent pay cut and other concessions)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Machinists at Hawker Beechcraft voted Saturday against a new seven-year contract that would have included a 10 percent pay cut and other concessions aimed at keeping the company from moving all its operations out of Kansas.

Bob Wood, spokesman for the airplane maker's union, said 55 percent of the members rejected the contract. The union had recommended accepting the contract to protect two-thirds of the workers' jobs.

The contract required a simple majority for approval. There was no strike vote.

"There's a lot of mistrust out there about the company," Wood said. "And those were very, very deep demands and cuts by the company."

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20101016/D9IT1FFO0.html

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Correction a money loser. But a 7 year contract of cuts? Thank you hack89 for the info.

[hack89]

1. They are losing money big time.

$63 million in the first quarter of 2010 alone. Luxury private plans are a hard sell in a big recession.

Do you suggest a stimulus package to allow rich people buy more planes?

[madrchsod]

2. no...it`s the 7 yr contract with no opening

would you want to take a 10% pay cut for 7 yrs with 2 or more percent inflation rate?

[WVRICK13]

4. What A Mess

The workers are given a choice of a 10% cut for 7 years or they may lose their jobs. Given this economy I have to ask if the pay cut a better deal than they can get with a new job, assuming they can find one? This entire recession has done nothing but help strengthen the oligarchy. Drop wages to keep jobs, causing a lowering of expectations and growth of income for the working class. Once everyone is reduced to slave labor the economy will suddenly boom, with unheard of profits for the owners. Business made more money last year than ever while the workers have suffered. They should negotiate a much shorter term contract based on the companies bottom line. They should also demand cuts in upper management salaries and perks.

[DainBramaged]

9. And when does the race to the bottom stop? OF COURSE you'd have them take the pay cut

because the employer will NEVER give it back.

Seven years is a LONG time.

[WVRICK13]

11. I Wouldn't Have Them

take the pay cut, because it frankly sucks. The workers are over a barrel and it isn't fair, the company will never give it back. The problem is it may suck, but it may be their best option at this time. We indeed are racing to the bottom. Unfortunately, I am in this damned race too. The question is, what will it take to stop this insane devaluing of American workers? If I were a wealthy business owner I would be concerned that eventually I would need people with money to buy my products. Business and government are being short sighted and in the end everyone will lose.

[54anickel]

3. Wasn't the 7 year bar originally set by Harley in Milwaukee? I know that

hubby's contract is coming in spring and there's talk of similar concessions being forced at them. Of course now that they've been sold to GE every thing is up in the air. Companies started the idea of 2-tier employees to rid themselves of legacy contracts through attrition, then Harley took that idea a step further with its notion of "seasonal" employees. They also got workers to agree to a 7 year "freeze" from my understanding. We don't have many union shops left in our area and the ones we do have are severely weakened from a bargaining standpoint.

[pattmarty]

5. This is the "under the radar" stuff you don't hear much about in the media...............

..........The anti union shit you DO hear about is the teachers union and how bad for schools the teachers union is. This is the final push to completely rid the US of any union representation that is worth a damn. When the unions are gone and most industry is gone and all we have left is "service" jobs and of course CEO's and the financial/real estate/insurance companies, then we WILL look just like a bigger Mexico and have a political system looking somewhat similar to Germany in 1938. You know that "slippery slope" everybody talks about? Well we're almost at the bottom of it in the political/social sense. I was fortunate to grow up (I was born in 1946) during the greatest time in US history, in my opinion. Sure we had the Shah coup in '53 and United Fruit in Central America in the early 50's and who can forget the "great" Sen Joseph McCarthy. Since the 70's this country has been on that slow "slippery slope" and no one has really done anything to stop it. Look at us now, we have actually certifiably fucking crazy people running for office (I mean MORE of them than usual), a Democratic party that has NOTHING in common with the Democratic party of FDR, LBJ, George Mcgovern, Walter Mondale or Hubert Humphrey. Are we fucked? I think at this stage it's still a toss up AND we're really lucky at this point in time we still have SOME chance of taking back the Country.

[alarimer]

6. That's extortion

"Approve this lousy contract or we'll move to another state/country".

Companies should be fined for doing that.

[Populist_Prole]

7. I'll bet they'll eventually move it out of there anyway

They've ( I mean business in general: Auto, Textiles, Transportation ) ) have been pulling this for years. It's "let us kill you slowly or we'll kill you right now".

[Demit]

10. Right. I think the union might as well call their bluff.

Let's see if the company can restart its business with all new workers in another state, if it can absorb those costs and stay profitable.

I'm betting they are in the process of 'reorganizing' their business, and want to retain their skilled workforce until that's complete. Then they'd lay them off anyway. Business holds all the cards except one, and they hate it: union workers have the power to say no. And that can hurt a business big time.

[Trajan]

8. Creeping Deflation

Get used to it ....

Thanks to the idiots in the workforce who have ignored the need to support unions in favor of some notion that tax cuts for the rich somehow improve their own standing.

Crazy ....

I expect wider wage cuts will be in the offing as less and less goods are sold .... The entire ball of wax is melting, and there is little to stop it now ...

[ProudDad]

12. Gee, I wonder if the fucking bosses and shareholders

are planning on taking a 10% cut too, hmmm?

I doubt it...

In an enlightened world the workers would take over the facility, tell Hawker-Beechcraft to go fuck themselves and retool to build inexpensive, light-rail and streetcars.