Boeing Machinists Strike After Failed Negotiations
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Sunday, September 7, 2008
EVERETT, Wash., Sept. 6 -- Boeing machinists walked out on strike Saturday after contract talks arbitrated by a federal mediator failed to produce an agreement.
About 100 union members hoisted their strike signs at 12:01 a.m. outside the Boeing plant in this city north of Seattle. This is the machinists' second strike in as many contract negotiations with Boeing. They struck for 24 days in 2005.
Eras Gattshall, a 47-year-old aerospace mechanic in Everett, said: "Boeing is [in] its best financial shape in years. All we're asking is a fair wage."
Gattshall has been with Boeing for 12 years and has been laid off twice.
The machinists assemble Boeing's commercial planes and some key components. Major strike issues include pay, outsourcing, retirement and health-care benefits.
The company said it would not try to assemble planes during the strike.
Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said the company is open to further discussion. No additional talks were scheduled.
Union members voted Wednesday to strike, but both sides agreed to a 48-hour contract extension. But negotiations failed Friday and the strike was on.
The union represents about 25,000 workers in the Puget Sound area, 1,500 in the Portland, Ore., area and about 750 in Wichita, Kan.
Analysts have said a strike could cost Boeing about $100 million per day in deferred revenue.
Boeing operations in Washington, Oregon and Kansas will remain open, said Scott Carson, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Employees who are not represented by the machinists' union, such as engineers, are expected to report for work as usual, he added.
Boeing's "best and final" offer for a three-year contract included bonuses totaling at least $5,000 and averaging $6,400, as well as raises averaging 11 percent, pension increases and a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment -- $34,000 in average pay and benefit gains per employee, according to the company.
