I predicted early on, based on the quick decision by the rank and file to strike, and the unheard of 96% approval, that management and the workers were so far apart that the end game was likely to be a Federal bailout, with labor forced to abandon its demands. Continuing management high-handedness, and with it, rising likelihood of a government rescue, confirms how rancidly self-serving Boeing’s top brass is. Boeing revoked the company-sponsored healthcare benefits of about 33,000 striking workers starting Tuesday
In related news, China has entered the commercial airline manufacturing industry, most notably with the development of the Comac C919, which is positioned as a competitor to Airbus’s A320 and Boeing’s 737 families
At Boeing the union workers are worth more than the management.
Yes, Airbus offers a pension plan to its employees. The Airbus Group UK Retirement Plan is a Defined Contribution (DC) pension scheme that provides employees with a range of options for retirement income
The first thing the very sickly poor management that currently runs Boeing did…when Boeing was profitable…before management destroyed Boeing…
Boeing said the current offer meant the average annual pay for machinists would rise from the present $75,608 (€67,851) to $111,155 (€99,750) at the end of the four-year contract. However, the new offer would not restore a traditional pension plan that Boeing removed about a decade ago.
Mothers if you want to respect your child do not let them become an MBA.
Part of McNerney’s plan to squeeze future profits towards the present was to bust the unions. He did this by outsourcing labor overseas and opening a non-union 787 production line in South Carolina to compete with the union line in Everett, Washington.
Labor costs were in fact cheaper, but the initial South Carolina 787s were of such poor quality they undeliverable and to be repaired in Puget Sound by union labor. Eventually, the problems got worked out enough such that SC 787s could be sent directly to customers, but QA/QC problems continued to point where at least one airline refused to accept any SC-built 787s. It was rumored but not confirmed (that I’m aware of) a couple other airlines said the same thing. KLM and American sent scathing comments to Boeing criticizing the slipshod build of the SC 787s.
Boeing MBAs examined the problem and after much soul-search and thought, concluded that while the SC 787s were junk, they were cheap junk and so moved ALL 787 production to SC. The QA/QC problems continue seemingly unabated. 20 years after launch the 787 program still hasn’t made any money, and some analysts think it never will.
Great article in the Seattle Times from last year by Jon Talton, who examines how Boeing has thoroughly screwed itself (in part with the SC 787 union busting debacle), and why it might be too big to fail.