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Mediation over, Boeing machinists to vote on offer
Seatlle, Sept 07: After three days of fruitless talks with a federal mediator, Boeing`s largest union gave up hope of further negotiations on Friday and began preparing to vote on the aircraft maker`s final contract offer, now more than a week old.
Seatlle, Sept 07: After three days of fruitless talks with a federal mediator, Boeing's largest union gave up hope of further negotiations on Friday and began preparing to vote on the aircraft maker's final contract offer, now more than a week old.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), representing 26,000 Boeing employees, did not immediately say when it would hold the vote, which would be the second ballot on the three-year contract offer.
The initial tally on last Thursday was disrupted by a last-minute request for mediation, which confused many union members and led the IAM to seal the ballots without counting them. Boeing repeatedly asked the union to tally the vote, but has also said it would abide by the results of a revote.
Union members have continued to work under terms of the previous three-year pact, which expired on September 2.
IAM leaders, who urged members to reject Boeing's offer and vote to strike when scheduled negotiations wrapped up on last Tuesday, said "enormous gaps" between the two sides still remained. Union leaders were returning from Washington, DC, to local headquarters in Kansas, Oregon and Washington state.
Boeing officials departed earlier this week after meeting top executives of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, but not union officials.
"We said all along we did everything we could to put a good offer on the table. We did not hear anything (during mediation) to change our belief," said Boeing spokesman Chuck Cadena.
Boeing's Seattle-based jetliner unit offered to boost pension pay by 20 per cent and pay an 8 per cent signing bonus, plus pay raises of 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent in years two and three of the contract.
But the union wanted bigger pension benefits and rejected the company's plan to shift more health care costs to IAM members. Boeing also steadfastly refused to consider union proposals to tie employment levels to aircraft production levels. Boeing has slashed jet production in half in the 12 months since the September 11 attacks, which discouraged many travelers and pushed battered airlines to the brink of bankruptcy.
The company has also cut 30,000 jobs, including thousands of machinists, and has insisted it needs to shift more work to contractors and cheaper foreign labor to compete with hard-charging rival Airbus SAS. Bureau Report
The initial tally on last Thursday was disrupted by a last-minute request for mediation, which confused many union members and led the IAM to seal the ballots without counting them. Boeing repeatedly asked the union to tally the vote, but has also said it would abide by the results of a revote.
Union members have continued to work under terms of the previous three-year pact, which expired on September 2.
IAM leaders, who urged members to reject Boeing's offer and vote to strike when scheduled negotiations wrapped up on last Tuesday, said "enormous gaps" between the two sides still remained. Union leaders were returning from Washington, DC, to local headquarters in Kansas, Oregon and Washington state.
Boeing officials departed earlier this week after meeting top executives of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, but not union officials.
"We said all along we did everything we could to put a good offer on the table. We did not hear anything (during mediation) to change our belief," said Boeing spokesman Chuck Cadena.
Boeing's Seattle-based jetliner unit offered to boost pension pay by 20 per cent and pay an 8 per cent signing bonus, plus pay raises of 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent in years two and three of the contract.
But the union wanted bigger pension benefits and rejected the company's plan to shift more health care costs to IAM members. Boeing also steadfastly refused to consider union proposals to tie employment levels to aircraft production levels. Boeing has slashed jet production in half in the 12 months since the September 11 attacks, which discouraged many travelers and pushed battered airlines to the brink of bankruptcy.
The company has also cut 30,000 jobs, including thousands of machinists, and has insisted it needs to shift more work to contractors and cheaper foreign labor to compete with hard-charging rival Airbus SAS. Bureau Report