SEATTLE ( TheStreet) -- Score one for Boeing in Friday's
International Association of Machinists contract vote, in which 32,000 Boeing
workers agreed to contract concessions in exchange for more jobs for Washington
and more job security for themselves. Score one for Washington state, where
Boeing will produce the 777X, its newest plane.
Also, score one for the IAM and its national leadership. The
union got to the right answer despite a difficult negotiating environment in
which two votes were rushed, workers had little information in the first
election, the company held all the cards and the union's internal disagreement
was publicly exposed. Democracy isn't pretty.
Who were the losers in the contract talks? That one is easy.
Boeing said 22 states submitted proposals for 777X work. Washington won. South
Carolina didn't get the 777X, but it did get a $1 billion expansion of its 787
facility.
So 20 states got nothing. Some including Washington publicly
fawned over Boeing, offering all manners of tax incentives. Fawning over a
company is unbecoming, but fawning and losing is even more so.
Overall, the Boeing contract negotiation story is a sign of
the times. Big companies generally get what they want, whether by lobbying
Congress or threatening to move. The union movement has been badly weakened in
recent years, but it has managed to hang on at Boeing and at airlines and
automakers.
And everywhere exists the belief that whatever works is
worth doing. This belief inspires states and cities to compete against one
another, not just for good jobs like those at Boeing but also, in far less
logical scenarios, for professional sports teams.
Looking at Boeing, it is a fabulously successful company
that submitted a concessionary contract "offer" accompanied by a
threat to place its new work outside the Seattle area, its principal home since
1916. The offer included reduced health care benefits, fixed rate salary
increases, elimination of a defined benefit pension plan and foregoing the
right to strike until 2024.
Boeing won because it got a better contract, it prevented
any IAM work stoppage until at least 2024, and it was spared the trouble of
relocating work away from its home.
As for the IAM, it suffered because its internal squabbles
were exposed to the world. That is never good for anyone, whether it happens in
a divorce case filing or in a contract dispute.
But to its credit, the union got to the right answer.
IAM national leadership had to overrule local leadership.
Local leaders were wrong to stand in the way of a second vote by their members.
Also, they chose not to recognize a harsh reality. But they were not wrong to
stand up for the defined benefit pension plans they had so carefully protected
and for retention of their right to strike in 2016. Union contracts, often
enabled by the right to strike, once ensured good working conditions for most
Americans.
Many arguments support the case that Boeing workers made the
right decision. For one, the IAM has been so successful in negotiating
contracts over the years that even Boeing's concessionary contract offer looked
good to most people. Moreover, contract rejection would have damaged those
voting to reject, given a potential decline in the value of their homes had
Boeing stopped growing or shrunk in Seattle.
Also, it is difficult to accept the argument, advanced by
some, that Boeing bluffed when it threatened to move 777X work out of Seattle.
Boeing seems satisfied with the work done on the 787 in South Carolina, even if
recent reports suggest that production is slower than expected and even if the
state's governor makes statements like, "I wear heels, and it's not for a
fashion statement. It's because we're kicking the unions every day." Come
to think of it, perhaps Gov. Nikki Haley speaks for Boeing.
Boeing said last month that it will spend $1 billion to
expand in South Carolina, which apparently was among the 22 states that bid for
777X work. It cannot be said that South Carolina lost -- it got something.
As for the remaining 20, most are not even known. The most
aggressive was Missouri, which put together a $1.7 billion incentive package.
Others reported to be courting Boeing were Alabama, California, Kansas, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.
Obviously, it's not wrong for states to chase good jobs. But
it looks bad to lose.
Source Philly.com
/ The Street
No comments:
Post a Comment