Inside
MEETING NOTICES
See
Page 10
Volume 111
Number 24
December 16, 2011
Portland
Machinists approve
four-year contract
extension with Boeing
The deal ends the
highest-profile labor
law case in decades
Unions in Marion, Polk,
and Yamhill counties throw
holiday party for local kids
Musician Norman Sylvester (below) sings a Christmas
song for Santa and Mrs. Claus during a holiday party
Dec. 3 sponsored by the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Counties
Central Labor Council. An estimated 400 kids and parents
sang holiday songs, watched a
movie, and met Santa at The
Elsinore Theatre in Salem.
Afterward, everyone received
a goody bag. The labor
council funds the annual
event — now in its 71st year
— through donations from
more than 14 union affiliates
and unionized businesses in
the community. Santa is
played by Jack Rusen of
Albany Steelworkers Local
6163. Mrs. Claus is played by
Mrs. Jack Rusen. Sylvester and
his band are members of
Musicians Local 99.
In Wichita, Portland, and the Puget
Sound, Machinists at Boeing Co. voted
by a 74 percent margin Dec. 7 to ap-
prove a four-year extension to their ex-
isting union contract. The agreement
raises wages and it preserves and in-
creases retiree benefits for 35,000
union members in three states. It also
commits to locate some new assembly
work at existing union facilities.
The deal was reached after months
of high-drama political interference by
Congressional Republicans in a federal
court case over Boeing’s violation of
U.S. labor law. International Associa-
tion of Machinists and Aerospace
Workers (IAM) filed charges March
26, 2011, alleging that Boeing decided
to locate its second 787 Dreamliner as-
sembly line in South Carolina, a right-
to-work state, in order to retaliate
against its union-represented workers
for striking. Under U.S. labor law,
workers have the right to strike, and
employers may not retaliate against
workers for exercising that right.
The National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) investigated, and on
April 20, Regional Director Rich
Ahearn issued a formal complaint
against Boeing. Normally, it can be
hard to show that retaliation was an
employer’s motive for shifting produc-
tion, but in this case, Boeing’s top ex-
ecutives had said repeatedly that they
were locating in South Carolina be-
cause of past strikes. In the complaint,
the NLRB asked the court to order that
Boeing locate its second 787 assembly
line in the state of Washington. It’s not
clear that the judge would have agreed.
The two sides were last in court Oct.
20, before administrative law judge
Clifford Anderson. But Boeing man-
agement may have been concerned
about other ramifications of the trial.
Bob Petroff, assistant directing
business representative of Gladstone,
Oregon-headquartered IAM District
W24, was one of the five union offi-
cials who took part in the secret talks
over the contract extension. Petroff
thinks the NLRB case was a big factor
that led Boeing to seek a deal with the
union.
“I think they were very fearful of
having their CEO testify as to what
their intent was,” Petroff told the Labor
Press, “because it was not a financially
prudent decision. It was based on re-
taliation.”
Machinists have struck the com-
pany four times over the past 20 years.
The most recent was an eight-week
walkout in 2008, which resulted in the
four-year agreement they are currently
working under. That pact wasn’t set to
expire until September 2012.
After the NLRB opened proceed-
ings on the allegations against Boeing,
Republicans in Congress targeted the
NLRB — threatening its budget, com-
pelling the NLRB’s top prosecutor to
testify at a Congressional hearing, even
trying to use Congressional subpoena
power to get the NLRB to reveal its le-
gal strategy in the Boeing case to the
House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform.
As part of the accord with Boeing,
the union asked the NLRB to drop the
case, which it did two days after the
ratification vote.
Seattle-headquartered IAM District
Lodge 751 called the accord “a historic
moment” in changing the relationship
between the union and Boeing, be-
cause for the first time, company exec-
utives are committing to keep work in
the Puget Sound. Boeing vows in the
contract to build a new airplane model
— the 737 MAX — at its existing
unionized facilities in the Puget Sound.
Other terms:
• Annual 2 percent across-the-board
wage increases each September, plus
quarterly cost-of-living increases equal
to the increase in the Consumer Price
Index [IAM says Boeing members
currently average $59,000 a year];
• An incentive program — with de-
tails to be worked out by a union-man-
agement committee — under which
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