Boeing Machinists Vote To Strike But Delay Action Until Friday Night (UPDATED)
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 9/5/08 @ 3:23 am - Filed Under National Politics
The IAM membership has overwhelmingly rejected (87%) Boeing management’s “best and final offer” but union leadership delayed the strike for 48 hours to see if they could win any last minute concessions. Personally, I think the machinists are crazy to turn down the deal Boeing proposed. This strike looks to be a lose-lose for everyone. It will devastate workers and undermine Boeing’s competitive advantage with Airbus.
I doubt if there will be any 11th hour concessions from management. The major sticking point seems to be the outsourcing of specific parts (especially for their new 787 Dreamliner) and Boeing could give some there but the union’s demands of zero outsourcing seem unrealistic. Besides there’s a 7-year backlog so there’s no immediate concern.
There won’t be much public support for the strikers either once people hear what they’ve turned down (for details see my previous post). I’m not sure how this is going to play out but it looks to get ugly…
UPDATED (9-6-2008) It’s official. As expected the last-minute talks went nowhere and the IAM membership is officially on strike.
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