I was just wondering if anybody out there had any inside scoop on what is happening  in Everett? The company I work for does a TON of subcontracting to Boeing so I have a big stake in the goings on up there. If the strike goes on for more then 3 weeks we'll start laying people off.  I really do not look for it to be an extended strike but kinda like what Vought went through last fall when the company offered us crap and then told us "we'll see you around" but within a week they were back at the bargaining table.
       We build the entire aft fusalage section from the pressure bulkhead aft as well as the verticle and horizontal stabilizers all of the doors and many of the Super panels for the 747. We also build the upper and lower lobes and the horizontal stabilizers for the 767 and some smaller peices for the these as well as some other Boeing aircraft. As you can see my company has plenty at stake here.

Sorry, haven't heard a word down here.  The stupidity of union workers never ceases to amaze me though.  You'd a thought they learned their lesson from the 1988 strike fiasco.

Merlin

From the Boeing News clips from this morning:




Boeing, union differ by $1 billion, Mulally says
Seattle Post-Intelligencer   09/09/05
author: James Wallace
(Copyright 2005)




The Boeing Co.'s striking Machinists union made demands that would have cost the company more than $1 billion above its final offer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes boss Alan Mulally said Thursday.

In a message to Boeing managers in the Puget Sound area, Portland and Wichita, Kan., Mulally said he is hopeful that the weeklong strike in those three areas will be a short one. But he also acknowledged that the two sides left the bargaining table far apart.

No talks are scheduled, Mulally said.

The last strike against Boeing by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District 751, lasted 10 weeks. That was in 1995.

"Our hope is for a short work stoppage with minimal impact on our communities and our relationship with them (the strikers)," Mulally said.

But he hinted there may be no quick settlement.

"When union negotiators say the two sides were 'miles apart,' they are correct," Mulally said in the message. "Having barely moved off their original position, union negotiators were demanding more than $1 billion more than what was in our best and final offer. Their position did not reflect the current market for pay and benefits and far exceeded any recent contract settlements in the industry."

In an update posted Thursday on its Web site, the union did not specifically address Mulally's message, but did say:

"Regardless of what Boeing says to their managers, 86 percent of our members said the company did not come close to meeting our expectations on pension, health care, job security and a number of other issues. The fact is their final offer is a smaller economic and benefit package than the 2002 contract."

Mulally, in his message, said that "while the divide between our offer and the union's extreme positions is large, it is in everyone's best interest to resolve this situation as quickly as possible."

He said the company is "always willing to discuss reasonable proposals around that offer which support our mutual goals and our long-term business plans and obligations."

The strike by the union's 18,400 members, of which more than 16,000 are in the Puget Sound area, has shut down Boeing's 737 production at its Renton plant and 747, 777 and 767 production at the Everett plant.

Some industry analysts have said the strike is likely to delay the delivery of as many as 30 or more jets if it lasts until the end of September. Mulally said Boeing will do all it can to help customers get the airplanes they need, short of actually building the planes.

"The strike is particularly damaging for them (customers) because they are just beginning to recover from a prolonged downturn in a fragile market," Mulally said. "We are looking at a variety of ways to support our customers' needs for airplanes during the strike, and we are examining all our options for recovering delivery schedules in a post-strike environment. Our support for in-service Boeing airplanes remains a top priority."

Mulally said Boeing has managed an "orderly" shutdown of its jetliner production since the strike began, and its suppliers have done what they need to do to manage their businesses.

"While we do not know how long the strike will last, we're confident that we are taking the right steps to enable a smooth restart of production sometime in the future," Mulally said.

The strike began a week ago today, three days after Boeing made its final offer.

The company made a number of concessions during the contract talks, Mulally said.

"We moved substantially from our initial positions on retirement, medical and wages," Mulally said. "And we structured various features of our offer to provide maximum flexibility to reduce the impact of our medical plan changes and allow employees to save for retirement. We also offered an incentive pay program requested by the union that shares the company's success with up to three weeks extra pay annually."

Boeing's final offer would have raised the pension multiplier for Machinists from $60 a month for each year of service to $66, which matched what was agreed to by Lockheed Martin in its most recent contract with its Machinists.

Mulally called that $66 figure the "industry's highest benchmark."

He disclosed that the union was seeking more than a 33 percent increase in pension benefits. The union had not previously said what it was asking, only that Boeing could easily afford another $20 above the $60 multiplier. Heading into the contract talks, better pension benefits was the union's top priority.

Mulally said the union also wanted a multimillion dollar contribution to the union's own pension plan and a 50 percent increase in Boeing's VIP savings plan match.

"While the union requested no general wage increases, its position on lump sum wage payments was even more extreme that its retirement demands," Mulally said.

In its final offer, Boeing offered union members in the Puget Sound area and Portland two lump sum cash bonuses of $3,000 each, which Boeing said could be rolled into its 401(k) retirement plan for a 50 percent company match, or another $3,000.

The union leadership has called Boeing's final offer "insulting," saying it was even worse than the last contract, in 2002, when the industry was in the downturn and Boeing was cutting thousands of jobs.

In a vote on the three-year contract offer Sept. 1, 86 percent approved the strike, according to the union.

Boeing's commercial jetliner business is having a banner sales year and is poised to beat rival Airbus in jetliner orders for the first time since 2000. Nearly 600 orders have been won so far in 2005. Mulally said "improved competitiveness" is the main reason for Boeing's recent success.

"Given all that we have accomplished over the past several years to make Boeing more competitive, we would be doing a disservice to every current and future employee, customer, shareholder, and our communities if we agreed to an offer that eroded our ability to compete," Mulally said.

"Accommodating the union positions would have done just that. In the end, it was a bridge too far for our bargaining team and our business plan."

My brother has worked for Boeing for about 20 years,when they strike it is usually for more than a week. He's now a Boeing Contractor working on Air Force instalations. They all prepare for the long haul.

The Seattle Times also has a article.

They ought to be glad they don't have the salaried retirement plan.

Quoted: My brother has worked for Boeing for about 20 years,when they strike it is usually for more than a week. He's now a Boeing Contractor working on Air Force instalations. They all prepare for the long haul.

   $144/week strike fund payment for walking picket line 4 hr.'s/day.  If you drive 20 miles/day to work to walk the line you 144 is gonna get burned up pretty quick.  How many  people do  you know have 3 months worth of  salary that they can tap into easily.  
   On the other hand, when my union started talking strike I went and got approved for a big signature loan, luckily I did not have to use it.

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JFP, my brother would work lots of OT,and planned for the enivitable strikes. Right now he is enjoying the contractor gig with Boeing. The plus/downside is he moves every year. However you want to look at it. The first time my brother got caught by a strike,was when he first started work for Boeing right out of the AirForce. Which is why he never got caught like that again. He ended up taking whatever job he could get to pay bills while they were on strike. Most of them learn and plan from it.

I did not have to worry about it so much this time 'cause one week before their strike began I had a bit of an accident while MTB'ing (2 broken bones in each wrist) and am out on Med Leave for 3-4 months.  My concern is not necessarily for myself but for those I work with. I am sure the Union-companies differences will be settled by the time I return to work.   The last two times that the Boeing Mechs struck or threatend to strike I made financial arrangements in order to avert personal hardship.

They need to shut the hell up and get back to work...



If I were you I would plan on them being on strike for a bit, Union Employees of the Lazy "B" are a bunch of crybaby bitches.

Quoted: They need to shut the hell up and get back to work... If I were you I would plan on them being on strike for a bit, Union Employees of the Lazy "B" are a bunch of crybaby bitches.

+1 and I work there.

They had another article on Boeing News Clips this morning, I'll post tomorrow.  The gist:  this one's gonna be a long one.

Merlin

I'd say two months minimum.  the last strike 9 years ago was for 69 days, this time the stakes are far higher for Boeing.

From today's Clips:

Strike worries Boeing supplier
Seattle Times   09/14/05
author: James Gunsalus / Bloomberg
(Copyright 2005)


Rockwell Collins, a supplier of cockpit electronics to Boeing, may lose as much as $15 million a month in sales next fiscal year because of a Machinists strike that has shut down Boeing's commercial-airliner factories.

For each month Boeing production is halted, Rockwell Collins profit will be reduced by $3 million to $5 million, or 1 cent to 2 cents a share, in fiscal 2006, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based company said yesterday. The strike, in its 13th day, won't hurt this quarter's results, spokeswoman Nancy Welsh said.

Vendors such as Goodrich and General Electric say their business hasn't been hurt by the shutdown. Honeywell International, the world's biggest maker of airplane controls, is still shipping products to Boeing, spokesman Bill Reavis said.

"The strike has had no impact on us," he said.

From today Boeing News Clips:

Boeing CFO: Impact Of Machinists' Strike Still Unclear
Dow Jones   09/14/05
author: Stephen Wisnefski





CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Boeing Co. (BA) hasn't yet quantified the potential impact of a strike by its machinists, the company's top finance executive said Wednesday.

Chief Financial Officer James Bell, speaking at a conference sponsored by Morgan Stanley, said the company's production activities were shut down in an orderly fashion, and that Boeing worked closely with its suppliers through the process.

"There isn't a definitive point when things get bad and when it will take longer to get back on track," Bell said during the conference, which was monitored via Webcast.

Bell noted that the longer the strike lasts, the more significant the impact will be for the aerospace giant.

Boeing's 18,300 machinists went on strike two weeks ago, shutting down commercial airline production at the Chicago-based company. The strike, the first work stoppage at Boeing in a decade, comes as the company is in a fierce battle with Airbus in the commercial aircraft market.

Bell said that 25-30 deliveries that had been scheduled for September won't be made. The longer the strike lasts, he noted, the more difficult it becomes to make up the lost deliveries.

While Boeing officials weigh the potential impact of the strike, Bell said the company's main focus is to reach an agreement with the machinists' union that will keep salaries at industry-leading levels, while enabling the company to perform in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Bell said the difference between the company's offer and the union's demands is large, at about $1 billion.

Bell, who served as interim chief executive for a few months earlier this year before the appointment of Jim McNerney as CEO, said his main focus on the performance side now is ensuring that the company achieves its goal of 7% net margin.

He said that net margin stands at about 4% now, but that 7% is achievable "within the near term" as Boeing focuses on profitable top-line growth.

He said the installation of McNerney as CEO won't result in dramatic shifts in strategy at Boeing, noting that the former 3M Co. (MMM) executive had been on the board at Boeing the past four years and was a member of the audit and finance committees.

"He's pretty much engaged in what we have in place today, and also the culture of integrity, the leadership culture we want to have in the company," Bell said.

McNerney, who took over in July, became the third CEO at Boeing in less than two years. Late in 2003, Phil Condit resigned from the position in an ethics scandal over government contracts. Harry Stonecipher, who came out of retirement to take the CEO position, was forced to resign last March over lax personal ethics.

Asked during Wednesday's conference how Boeing could be impacted by the difficulties facing U.S. airlines, Bell said the company focuses more on passenger numbers than the specific problems facing carriers.

"The key for us is traffic, and the traffic in the domestic market is strong," Bell said.

Several U.S. airlines are struggling to overcome poor financial positions that have been exacerbated by the recent surge in jet-fuel costs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The boards of Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) and Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWAC) are meeting Wednesday to weigh possible bankruptcy filings.

Bell said it was clear that some carriers are headed toward bankruptcy, and that Boeing would do what it could to help its customers.

He said that the U.S. market has turned to more of a low-cost model, and that low-cost carriers are likely to be able to maintain the market share they have gained in recent years.

Bell noted that Boeing has been seeing the bulk of its new commercial aircraft orders from foreign carriers, but that he expects a recovery in demand from domestic carriers.

"I don't think we're going to see the traditional recovery - it may come in bits and spurts," Bell said, noting that the recovery for the industry may be prolonged and gradual.

"We think that (orders from domestic carrier) will start to feather in, we just don't know when," he said.

Boeing supplies all the major U.S. carriers."

Quoted: Quoted: They need to shut the hell up and get back to work... If I were you I would plan on them being on strike for a bit, Union Employees of the Lazy "B" are a bunch of crybaby bitches. +1 and I work there. They had another article on Boeing News Clips this morning, I'll post tomorrow.  The gist:  this one's gonna be a long one. Merlin

You work fr Boeing in Decatur, Alabama?