02-20-2013 06:59 AM
hmmm... is the union helpful here or not?
Boeing engineers OK contract; tech workers say no
The union representing Boeing Co.'s engineers and technical workers delivered a split decision on a new contract Tuesday, with the engineers accepting their offer and the technical workers rejecting theirs and authorizing a future strike.
The union had recommended that both units reject the contract offer because it would not provide pensions to new employees. They would have a 401k retirement plan instead.
The union called that unacceptable, but the Chicago-based airplane-maker said the change was important to the company's future.
The vote came as the company is trying to solve battery problems that have grounded its new 787s. The engineers and technical workers in the union work on plans for new planes and solve problems that arise on the factory floor.
While a strike by the technical workers is not imminent, the vote means the negotiating team can call one at any time, said Bill Dugovich, spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
The engineers' vote means those 15,500 employees have a new four-year contract in place, Dugovich said. Union negotiators hope to resume contract talks soon on behalf of the 7,400 technical workers, he said.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner said in a statement that the company was pleased with the engineers' vote but "deeply disappointed" in the technical workers' rejection of what he called the company's "best and final" offer.
"The realities of the market require us to make changes so we can invest in new products and keep winning in this competitive environment ..." Conner said in his statement. "That's why our proposal to move future hires to an enhanced 401(k)-style retirement plan is so important, as we have repeatedly emphasized over the course of these negotiations."
Union members rejected one previous contract offer in October. SPEEA last went on strike for 40 days in 2000.
"With this second rejection by technical workers of Boeing takeaways, it's time for the company to stop wasting resources and improve its offer to reflect the value and contributions technical workers bring to Boeing," SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth said in a statement. "That way, we can avoid a strike and focus on fixing the problems of the 787 and restoring customer confidence in Boeing."
The latest labor unrest is happening as U.S. regulators launch an open-ended review of the 787's design and construction. Last month, a battery on a parked 787 caught fire in Boston. On Jan. 16, another 787 made an emergency landing in Japan after another battery problem.
All 50 787s that Boeing had delivered so far are grounded until the issue is resolved.
The union's nearly 23,000 employees are mostly in the Puget Sound region. Union leaders believe a strike would shut down Boeing production lines in Everett, Wash., where its big planes are made, as well as in Renton, Wash., where it cranks out the widely used 737.
The factory-floor assembly work is done by the members of the International Association of Machinists. The Machinists approved a new, four-year contract in December 2011, after a walkout in 2008 that contributed to a 3½-year delay in delivering the first 787.
It was also a factor in Boeing opening a plant in South Carolina, where laws make it more difficult to unionize.
02-20-2013 07:25 AM
02-20-2013 01:55 PM
What's the difference between a Tech worker and Engineer in Boeingspeak?
Which group are most valuable in fixing the Screamliner?
02-20-2013 01:58 PM
planteater-X wrote:What's the difference between a Tech worker and Engineer in Boeingspeak?
Which group are most valuable in fixing the Screamliner?
A Tech is essentially a drafter/designer (what I am), while a Prof is an engineer.
02-20-2013 02:15 PM
02-20-2013 02:19 PM
Davo17 wrote:
These fucking unions continue to undermine research and development, as well as production.
I think they need to go. Nothing is sacred and we need the competition.
Luckily for the rest of us, people who actually know what they are talking about get to decide these things, not people like you.
Who the hell do you think DOES R&D? It isn't executives.
02-20-2013 02:20 PM
pink freud wrote:
Davo17 wrote:
These fucking unions continue to undermine research and development, as well as production.
I think they need to go. Nothing is sacred and we need the competition.
Luckily for the rest of us, people who actually know what they are talking about get to decide these things, not people like you.
Who the hell do you think DOES R&D? It isn't executives.
Who does R and D when they are striking?
02-20-2013 02:37 PM
02-20-2013 02:49 PM
Pigger wrote:
FWIW, my experiences with unions has been uniformly bad, in that the union workers I've had to deal with spent a lot of time & effort avoiding doing any actual work.
That said, I understand that it was and is corporate greed & lack of regard for their workers' welfare that created the situation where unions could form & grow. Unfortunately, the unions themselves have succumbed to the same greed IMO, and see their employers as adversaries, and in some cases, even work against the very corporations that pay their wages.
Like U.S. politics, there seems to be lacking a middle ground of moderate thought in employer/employee relations,where each could benefit reasonably from their combined efforts.
In this specific case we asked for the same contract we got four years ago, which seemed very reasonable after we got bombarded with "RECORD SALES!!!" emails from corporate all last year.
02-20-2013 03:10 PM
pink freud wrote:
Pigger wrote:
FWIW, my experiences with unions has been uniformly bad, in that the union workers I've had to deal with spent a lot of time & effort avoiding doing any actual work.
That said, I understand that it was and is corporate greed & lack of regard for their workers' welfare that created the situation where unions could form & grow. Unfortunately, the unions themselves have succumbed to the same greed IMO, and see their employers as adversaries, and in some cases, even work against the very corporations that pay their wages.
Like U.S. politics, there seems to be lacking a middle ground of moderate thought in employer/employee relations,where each could benefit reasonably from their combined efforts.
In this specific case we asked for the same contract we got four years ago, which seemed very reasonable after we got bombarded with "RECORD SALES!!!" emails from corporate all last year.
I work for a large corporation, and Boeing is one of our customers. I am an hourly employee, non-union.
I understand what you're saying; we got no raises this year, despite record earnings for the corp.
The plant I work at became more busy a few years ago, when the corporation closed a union plant in NJ and moved the work here.
I have worked with our Boeing customers in Long Beach and St. Louis for many years, and found them to be easy to work with and to achieve good results in an efficient manner with. However, when I had to work with our Boeing customers that had done business with our NJ plant, I found them to be very mistrustful and obstructive. After a while, I came to understand that this was, at least to some degree, a result of Boeing having to deal with the uncooperative attitudes of the people in our NJ plant. Not just the hourly union folks, either; the poor attitudes seemed to exist from top to bottom, IMO. These Boeing people did come around however, after several years of dealing with our plant and the cooperation they encountered here.
These are my experiences only; there may be union situations that work well for all. I just haven't seen any yet. I also haven't seen many non-union situations where the employers were entirely "fair" to their employees.
A middle ground would be nice.
02-20-2013 03:20 PM
Pigger wrote:
FWIW, my experiences with unions has been uniformly bad, in that the union workers I've had to deal with spent a lot of time & effort avoiding doing any actual work.
That said, I understand that it was and is corporate greed & lack of regard for their workers' welfare that created the situation where unions could form & grow. Unfortunately, the unions themselves have succumbed to the same greed IMO, and see their employers as adversaries, and in some cases, even work against the very corporations that pay their wages.
Like U.S. politics, there seems to be lacking a middle ground of moderate thought in employer/employee relations,where each could benefit reasonably from their combined efforts.
Ive worked as a Paramedic at both union and non-union shops.
Almost without exception, the biggest fuckups-people who will kill someone-were at the non union shops. There was actaully a worse relationship with management there. The only benefit I can think of is we got 13 full uniforms, a helmet, and a heavy duty jacket on day one at the union shop.
02-20-2013 03:25 PM
Davo17 wrote:
Pigger wrote:
FWIW, my experiences with unions has been uniformly bad, in that the union workers I've had to deal with spent a lot of time & effort avoiding doing any actual work.
That said, I understand that it was and is corporate greed & lack of regard for their workers' welfare that created the situation where unions could form & grow. Unfortunately, the unions themselves have succumbed to the same greed IMO, and see their employers as adversaries, and in some cases, even work against the very corporations that pay their wages.
Like U.S. politics, there seems to be lacking a middle ground of moderate thought in employer/employee relations,where each could benefit reasonably from their combined efforts.Ive worked as a Paramedic at both union and non-union shops.
Almost without exception, the biggest fuckups-people who will kill someone-were at the non union shops. There was actaully a worse relationship with management there. The only benefit I can think of is we got 13 full uniforms, a helmet, and a heavy duty jacket on day one at the union shop.
I appreciate your work, Davo; I was scraped off a road last summer & helped by Paramedics after some idiot pulled out from a side street into the path of my Ducati. ![]()
02-20-2013 03:27 PM
Lord Elpus wrote:
This is great news for Airbus.
Woot woot.
As if the 787 fiasco wasn't already. ![]()
02-20-2013 03:37 PM
Lord Elpus wrote:
Airbus blows Boeing.
OK :idk:
02-20-2013 03:49 PM
Pigger wrote:
Davo17 wrote:
Pigger wrote:
FWIW, my experiences with unions has been uniformly bad, in that the union workers I've had to deal with spent a lot of time & effort avoiding doing any actual work.
That said, I understand that it was and is corporate greed & lack of regard for their workers' welfare that created the situation where unions could form & grow. Unfortunately, the unions themselves have succumbed to the same greed IMO, and see their employers as adversaries, and in some cases, even work against the very corporations that pay their wages.
Like U.S. politics, there seems to be lacking a middle ground of moderate thought in employer/employee relations,where each could benefit reasonably from their combined efforts.Ive worked as a Paramedic at both union and non-union shops.
Almost without exception, the biggest fuckups-people who will kill someone-were at the non union shops. There was actaully a worse relationship with management there. The only benefit I can think of is we got 13 full uniforms, a helmet, and a heavy duty jacket on day one at the union shop.
I appreciate your work, Davo; I was scraped off a road last summer & helped by Paramedics after some idiot pulled out from a side street into the path of my Ducati.
Appreciate it, sadly I frequently encounter motorcyclists while working.
02-20-2013 04:03 PM
Unions need to be more sensible.
02-20-2013 04:39 PM
Disemboweler wrote:Unions need to be more sensible.
How so? Specifically, what in this latest contract negotiation has made you believe that SPEEA is being unsensible?
02-20-2013 07:45 PM
pink freud wrote:
Disemboweler wrote:Unions need to be more sensible.
How so? Specifically, what in this latest contract negotiation has made you believe that SPEEA is being unsensible?
The fact that Boeing...the EMPLOYER...gets to make the employment offer, and the employees can reject the offer or take it. Freedom is a bitch. Boeing can always hire non-union engineers, etc.
02-21-2013 01:01 AM
nedezero1 wrote:
pink freud wrote:
Disemboweler wrote:Unions need to be more sensible.
How so? Specifically, what in this latest contract negotiation has made you believe that SPEEA is being unsensible?
The fact that Boeing...the EMPLOYER...gets to make the employment offer, and the employees can reject the offer or take it. Freedom is a bitch. Boeing can always hire non-union engineers, etc.
In which case the union loses work.
02-21-2013 06:31 AM
pink freud wrote:
Who the hell do you think DOES R&D? It isn't executives.
We're wondering that, in light of Boeing's latest plane. Overheating batteries? Every electrical engineer knows about the heat and explosive issues of batteries, so this latest failure mode indicates deep structural problems in Boeing's R&D system.
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