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13 July, 1999Job security, health care and pensions are the principal issues in contract talks between the Boeing Co. and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
USA: The current 44 month-long labour agreement expires 12:01 a.m., September 2. "Job security, health insurance and retirements are the same issues troubling millions of working men and women across the country," said IAM Chief Negotiator Dick Schneider when the contract talks opened. "We have an opportunity and a responsibility to point the way forward in these negotiations; to prove that realistic solutions to these problems do, indeed, exist, if people are willing to work together for solutions."
According to surveys of the 49,000 Machinists at Boeing, 95 percent of the members described their jobs as only "somewhat secure" or "not secure at all," despite record-high aircraft production and delivery rates, Schneider pointed out.
Outsourcing and subcontracting of Boeing work to domestic companies was cited as the principal threat to job security by 65 percent of the union membership. "It is our clear responsibility to negotiate a new contract: to discuss, share ideas and, finally, to reach an agreement that addresses the needs of the workers and management in a fair and comprehensive way. We hope and believe Boeing is here in that same spirit," Schneider said.
When the Machinists and Boeing Co. began their contract talks, Jerry Calhoun, Boeing's vice president of labour relations, told a news conference, "We are committed to finding solutions that work for everyone....These negotiations are about people and how we all can succeed." (AFL-CIO)
Nice words. But Mike Maharry, who covers Boeing and the aerospace industry for the Tacoma, Wash., News Tribune, looked a little deeper. His July 4 column revealed a memo to Boeing managers from Calhoun.
"At the end of all our negotiations, we need to be able to run our business as unfettered as possible....What competes with becoming more lean and productive is the union s idea of job security," the memo read.
IAM members struck Boeing in two of the last three negotiations: for 48 days in 1989 and 69 days in 1995.
According to surveys of the 49,000 Machinists at Boeing, 95 percent of the members described their jobs as only "somewhat secure" or "not secure at all," despite record-high aircraft production and delivery rates, Schneider pointed out.
Outsourcing and subcontracting of Boeing work to domestic companies was cited as the principal threat to job security by 65 percent of the union membership. "It is our clear responsibility to negotiate a new contract: to discuss, share ideas and, finally, to reach an agreement that addresses the needs of the workers and management in a fair and comprehensive way. We hope and believe Boeing is here in that same spirit," Schneider said.
When the Machinists and Boeing Co. began their contract talks, Jerry Calhoun, Boeing's vice president of labour relations, told a news conference, "We are committed to finding solutions that work for everyone....These negotiations are about people and how we all can succeed." (AFL-CIO)
Nice words. But Mike Maharry, who covers Boeing and the aerospace industry for the Tacoma, Wash., News Tribune, looked a little deeper. His July 4 column revealed a memo to Boeing managers from Calhoun.
"At the end of all our negotiations, we need to be able to run our business as unfettered as possible....What competes with becoming more lean and productive is the union s idea of job security," the memo read.
IAM members struck Boeing in two of the last three negotiations: for 48 days in 1989 and 69 days in 1995.