Hoping Your
Holidays
Are Filled
With Happiness
ATPA
Administrators of
Employee Benefit Plans
7600 SW Mohawk St.
Tualatin, OR 97062
503 454-3800 Fax: 503 454-3832
New round of contract
talks at Boeing collapse
A second round of bargaining be-
tween the Machinists Union and Boe-
ing Co. has proven to be unfruitful.
Machinists District 751 presented a
proposal to Boeing Dec. 11 that would
have brought labor peace to the air-
plane manufacturer for the next 16
years, with a guarantee that the 777X
would be built in Washington state.
Boeing rejected the offer out of
hand, then countered the following day
with a “best and final” offer that was
little changed from a proposal workers
rejected Nov. 13 by a more than 2-to-1-
margin.
The counteroffer was rejected by
the union leadership.
Several politicians, including Wash-
ington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Rep.
Rick Larsen (D), criticized union lead-
ership, saying that Boeing’s offer
should be put to a vote.
Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson,
Snohomish County Executive John
Lovick, and Port of Everett Commis-
sioner Troy McClelland went a step
further, issuing a joint statement that
not only called for the Machinists to
hold an election — but also urging
union members to vote in favor of Boe-
ing’s offer.
In turn, several hundred union
members made it known via Facebook
that they wanted a chance to vote on
the new proposal.
The action by politicians drew a
critical response from Jeff Johnston,
president of the Washington State La-
bor Council. In a press statement,
Johnson said that while the politicians
are entitled to their opinions, “putting
their opinions in a press statement is
absolutely disrespectful to the Machin-
ists and to the labor movement. That
they expressed their views so publicly
and so supportively of the company’s
position reveals how little they under-
stand and respect the collective bar-
gaining process and the generations of
sacrifice made by machinists to make
this company prosperous.”
District 751 officials posted a four-
page document presented by Boeing
Dec. 11 in which they identified only
four changes from the company’s Nov.
13 offer. “And they weren’t signifi-
cant,” said District 751 Directing Busi-
ness Representative Tom Wroblewski.
On top of the previously offered
$10,000 signing bonus, employees
would have received a bonus of
$5,000, payable in 2020. Employees
would have received additional dental
benefits of $500 per person in 2020,
and another $500 per person in 2024.
Boeing withdrew an earlier demand
tto slow the wage progression for new
hires. The offer reverted to the status
quo, which is that new hires go to the
top of the pay scale in six years.
The company also promised to ex-
tend a “letter of understanding” that
guaranteed Machinists would keep
doing 737 MAX work until 2024, but
it offered no contract language on it,
leaving union officials uncertain as to
how solid the guarantee was.
“Every other item was exactly the
same as the offer you rejected Nov.
13,” Wroblewski posted on the
union’s website.
As previously proposed, the long-
term contract would have frozen the
defined benefit pension plan, replac-
ing it with a defined contribution sav-
ings plan that was so vague, union of-
ficials said they couldn’t explain to
members how it would work. It
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