Good day all. About two months ago the Boeing machinists went out on strike. During the strike, no late model Boeing aircraft crashed or had parts fall off them in flight.
From what I can tell, the vote was not what you would call unanimous, although it looks like the members are getting a pretty big bump in pay. Here are the details from CNBC:
Boeing machinists approved a new labor deal Monday, ending a costly seven-week strike that halted most of the company’s aircraft production, worsening its mounting losses.
There is a reason Boeing is losing money. In the old days, the company motto was “Quality is Job One!” and you could generally count on a Boeing built plane to not crash, and in the rare event one did, it was usually the ground that suffered the worst. Then came the 737 MAX and the covers were pulled back on serious mismanagement all up and down Boeing.
Machinists voted 59% in favor of the new contract, which includes 38% wage increases over four years and other improvements.
Only 59% of the union members voted in favor of the contract? I don’t know about all the “Fiddly bits” in the contract, but an almost 10% a year pay increase is nothing to sneeze at. (I wish I was getting a 10% increase)
The approval is a relief for Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who took the top job in August to steer the company through its safety and manufacturing crises. The company raised more than $20 billion in a share sale last week to weather its financial problems after warning it will likely burn cash through 2025.
There is a reason for these problems. Thanks to Boeing’s safety problems, especially with the 737 MAX, airlines started canceling orders.
Ortberg last month said Boeing will cut 10% of its 170,000 workforce including mangers, executives and employees, to slash costs, with layoff notices going out in mid-November. He painted a picture of a leaner Boeing, focusing on its core commercial and defense businesses.
Ouch! I suspect I see the reason why 41% of the union members voted against the contract. They were probably looking for guarantees that none of them would lose their jobs in the layoffs. Well, as I understand these things, if layoffs happen, it will be the junior people losing their jobs. The senior people will be taking their jobs from them.
“While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team. We will only move forward by listening and working together,” Ortberg said after the contract passed. “There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”
One thing that will help is, when you do the layoffs, getting rid of as many of the bean counters as possible who decided it was a good idea to play games with the 737 MAX development.
Boeing will now be able to resume production, key to its recovery since the bulk of the aircraft price is paid when they are handed over to customers. But getting up to target production rates, particularly for the 737 Max, Boeing’s cash cow, will take time.
That cash cow is suffering from Mad Cow disease thanks to the two crashes and other issues that plane has been having. Another cash cow will be the new AWACS plane that the U.S.A.F. has ordered to replace the old E3 Sentry. That is also based on the 737 airframe, although not the MAX version.
Boeing said machinist pay will average $119,309 at the end of this contract proposal. The first wage rise will be 13%. The contract also increases 401(k) contributions and a signing bonus of up to $12,000 or a combination of a $7,000 bonus and $5,000 401(k) deposit.
That is a nice pay hike. Now I will state for the record that I don’t know exactly what these machinists do. I suspect it’s a lot more complicated then mounting a wheel on a car on an assembly line.
Workers had complained about the skyrocketing cost of living in the Seattle area, where most of Boeing’s aircraft are produced.
Insert something
That doesn’t surprise me at all. Seattle has become a Socialist pest hole with the city government ramming through all sorts of really stupid laws that have literally bankrupted many small businesses and forced them to close their doors. However, these workers aren’t getting that much sympathy from me. They voted for all that crap and they have to pay for it.
Still it’s good the strike is over. I don’t know if it will matter in the long term though. Boeing is in a world of hurt with issues with all their latest aircraft. Hopefully, they will fix the internal problems that has brought them to the brink. If they go under, that contract will worth absolutely nothing.
Thatisall
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...
~The Angry Webmaster~
