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Friday, September 7, 2012

Economy Remember This When Boeing Cites a SPEEA Strike as Justification for Moving More Jobs Out of Washington State

Posted by Goldy on Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 6:55 AM

Boeing executives like to point to union strife as their main reason for moving jobs to non-union South Carolina. But as Seattle Times business columnist Jon Talton points out, it is strife of their own making:

As a manager, I supervised union employees for years. It's easy, especially with professionals. Unless, of course, you are determined to continue redistributing income from the middle class to the very rich while rubbing the union's face in it. And that appears to be Boeing's strategy in dealing with the Society of Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). The savage spirit of Jack Welch is alive and well in Chicago.

It's not often that I have the opportunity to type these words about a Seattle Times column, but read the whole damn thing.

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Comments (8) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

whatever.

thanks for the Jobs!

xoxo

SCarolina

Posted by your unions are going down on September 7, 2012 at 7:15 AM

Support unions, join one or start one today. And I am not looking at any specific. *ahem*

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on September 7, 2012 at 7:18 AM

don't worry, you loyal blue state Democrap Obama fanboys!

the President PROMISES! you will get some jobs!

just give him some more time......

Posted by btw he has a bridge for sale.... on September 7, 2012 at 7:19 AM

Thanks for posting that fine link. Nice to have Stranger writers not posting Boeing management talking points any more.

The most important thing is to disband current unions and their ethically compromised power structures.
Re-form and negotiate contracts based on mutual gain and profit-sharing instead of adversity. If the Boeing machinists had said "we'll make you the best damned jet in the world and we'll block out Airbus's market share and then you'll reward us with some of the profits," everybody would've won. Instead, they waited until the company was at its most vulnerable and then threw stones at its head. Everybody loses.
http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives…

The Boeing machinists' strike last year totally fucked up the company's efforts to roll out a new jet, which may mean that Boeing leaves Washington for, say, South Carolina, which would mean that the strike—in the long run—totally fucked over tens of thousands of working-class families. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

Posted by gloomy gus on September 7, 2012 at 7:48 AM

The P is for "Professional." I don't know why the Seattle Times article leaves that word out in their elaboration of the acronym.

Posted by Zebes

on September 7, 2012 at 8:23 AM

Read Jon Talton more often and you'll have plenty of opportunities to write those words.

He's a rock star in my book.

Posted by Fluffy on September 7, 2012 at 8:57 AM

For those that care you can leant more about the negotiations fun and games at SPEEA.org

Posted by SPEEA on September 9, 2012 at 9:36 AM

The Boeing Company has 2 big problems; an aging workforce and the 787 development costs. They are trying to hold on to the aging work force by removing the early retirement option. They are doing this by removing from the contract the medical insurance that currently covers retirees between 55 and 65. The financial costs of taking on too much technical risk with the 787 and an unsuccessful effort to outsource certain sections of the superstructure will be spread out over the next decade. As the production increases from 3.5 airplanes a month to 10 a month what would have been increased earnings will now show up as increased write-offs. This will lower all the metrics that analysts use to evaluate a company and its management. Management will use the engineering strike as an excuse for this deterioration in company performance. The money offered in the contract is not the issue. If it was, SPEEA would not have recommended rejection of the contract. SPEEA has never recommended rejection of a contract before this one.

Posted by John OConnell on September 21, 2012 at 11:39 AM