Boeing IAM Members say Yes.

[eolesen]

http://airchive.com/blog/2014/01/04/machinists-approve-boeing-777x-contract/

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2022593956_machinistsunionvotexml.html

SEATTLE, WA: The 777X saga came to an end Friday evening as machinists in one of Boeings largest unions approved a contract that guarantees the aircraft and its wings will be built in Washington State. The final tally was 51% for to 49% in favor, despite a near militant vote no campaign orchestrated by local union leadership and a landslide rejection of the companys initial offer. The decision to approve the contract ends months of uncertainty as to where the jet would be built.

Some of the news stories are saying the pension is frozen, but it doesn't sound like that's really the case.

The pension will be closed to new hires, and replaced with a 401K. 10% company match for the first two or three years, and then a 4% match. But that's not a freeze.

 

[700UW]

Anyone is who all ready vested in the Defined Benefit Plan will continue with the DBP and will see no changes.

 

[700UW]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/business/boeing-workers-approve-contract-tied-to-777x.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

Not surprised the vote was to earn the new 777X work in Seattle.  The union leaders even recognized they were the last to convert from a defined pension to to a 401K.  Good move for both labor and management.
 
However Boeing is going to move the the entire 787 line to South Carolina.  They are nearly doubling the plant floorspace and extending runways in addition to leasing an additional 500 acres and doing the whole wetland-replacement-stuff.

 

[Kev3188]

http://socialistworker.org/2014/01/06/blackmail-and-betrayal-at-boeing
 
 
From the article:
 
 
Ryker didn't consider herself a union activist before November, but in the middle of this contract struggle, as she put it, "I realized my apathy is part of the problem. If I don't change the way I'm operating, then nothing will change. So I started to become active. 
 
"...It was one of the most rewarding and inspiring experiences in my life. The incredible people I've met in the process make the journey worth it regardless of the outcome."
 
There's hope yet. Right on.

 

[xUT]

Entry-level pay will be frozen until 2024. By that time, starting pay for the bottom three pay grades will be at the state minimum wage, which rises each year with a cost-of-living adjustment. Overall general wage increases (GWI) will be 1 percent in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2023. The current contract gives a GWI of 2 percent each year. If current pay increases continued through the eight-year extension, workers would get a 16 percent increase over eight years. Instead, they will get only a 4 percent hike.
 
Perhaps the most shocking concession of all--given the claims of politicians and IAM officials that this offer had to be accepted to preserve jobs building the 777X--is contract language that allows Boeing to outsource union work. It reads: "Boeing may contract or outsource certain 777X wing fabrication and assembly work packages in whole or part."
 

 
WOW!
And you wonder why unions are disappearing.
Self immolation. :wacko:
 
 

 

[Kev3188]

Yep. That whole article was just a ton of suck on a buncha levels...
 
But despite all that, people like the lady I quoted insist on fighting the good fight. That gives me hope, and that mindset is what keeps me energized...

 

[xUT]

Yep. That whole article was just a ton of suck on a buncha levels...
 
But despite all that, people like the lady I quoted insist on fighting the good fight. That gives me hope, and that mindset is what keeps me energized...

Good for you!
Hang in There Kev.
Maybe there will be a turn around before people will be back to working 60 hours a week at min wage.
Unions 'have' to change! Or they will die!
 
Crap like this has to go:

Despite the overwhelming rejection of Boeing's proposal in the November vote, IAM President R. Thomas Buffenbarger forced a second vote on January 3--the Friday before thousands of vacationing workers returned from the holiday plant shutdown. District 751 leaders didn't give an exact count of how many voted, but they did say the turnout was several thousand lower than for the first vote.

 
There are 'other' tidbits in the op piece that is interesting.
 
Take Care,
B) xUT

 

[southwind]

 
"Despite the overwhelming rejection of Boeing's proposal in the November vote, IAM President R. Thomas Buffenbarger forced a second vote on January 3--the Friday before thousands of vacationing workers returned from the holiday plant shutdown. District 751 leaders didn't give an exact count of how many voted, but they did say the turnout was several thousand lower than for the first vote."

Sounds to me like the Union boss was getting worried about where his next check was going to come from!

 

[700UW]

They voted on an offer that was turned down by the local IAM leadership, its not the same TA that they voted down the first time.

 

[southwind]

They voted on an offer that was turned down by the local IAM leadership, its not the same TA that they voted down the first time.

And with less representation, from the sound of it!

 

[700UW]

https://www.facebook.com/rosiesmachinists751

 

[700UW]

Looks like the the Boeing SC factory is having some problems:
 

The aerospace giant is hiring more than 300 contract mechanics and inspectors immediately at the factory in North Charleston, S.C., and could increase that number to between 500 and 1,000, according to three people familiar with the hiring. Those workers would assist the more than 7,000 people Boeing employed in South Carolina as of the end of last year, a figure that includes existing contract workers but predominantly Boeing staff employees.

The move is a reversal by Boeing, which early last year let go of hundreds of contract workers in an effort to reduce costs at North Charleston. Contract workers are generally paid more than staff employees, not including benefits. It reflects the company's continued struggle to ramp up production of the advanced, widebody jetliner while also reducing costs.

Boeing has struggled to quickly attract experienced contractors to assist, said a person familiar with the hiring. According to public job listings for contract positions, staffers are being offered an hourly rate of $23 for assembly mechanics and inspectors. That is higher than what staff employees typically make, but well below the $28 to $45 an hour offered for the same positions in 2009, said a former contractor at the site who was approached by a recruiter to reapply for his old job after his contract was canceled as part of last year's cuts.

 

[delldude]

With Obama's successful job creation program of putting people on UE to stimulate the economy, I see your point........who's going to apply?

 

[xUT]

How Killing Unemployment Benefits Could Kill Economic Growth
 
 

On Jan. 10, the monthly jobs report showed that the U.S. economy added only 74,000 jobs in December—and that people were giving up on finding employment and leaving the work force in droves. (That’s why the unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent; you have to be looking for a job to count as unemployed.) Then, last Tuesday, the Senate voted down two proposals to revive federal emergency employment compensation (EUC) for 1.3 million jobless workers that expired in late December. Cutting off these people, and the millions more who would have relied on the program this year, is almost certain to exacerbate the negative trend of people leaving the labor force that stood out in Friday’s jobs report.
 
In fact, it’s already happening. Last June, North Carolina cut off federal unemployment benefits to its workers (for reasons I explained here). As the only state to do so, North Carolina is a harbinger of what could happen nationally, now that the program has ended and appears unlikely to be revived. This chart, from John Quinterno of the Chapel Hill, N.C., economic research firm South by North Strategies, shows what happened to the state’s labor force before and after this change:
 

:wacko: :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: