Boeing is now taking desperate measures to avoid being downgraded:
Stranger
My employer deals with this by negotiating a cap (and usually a floor as well). So a a random contract for us might be something like COLA +.25% first two years, COLA next two, with a floor of ~2% and a cap of ~5-6%. We’ve had worse than that (like a mutually agreed on two-year wage freeze, when rising medical costs were a concern) and slightly better, but that’s probably not an unusual set of numbers over my 30+ year career.
Another offer. Boeing seems desperate:
Boeing seems to be trying as hard as it can to inch close to 40% but not actually be 40%.
The strike has ended. Per NYT
The new contract will raise wages more than 43 percent cumulatively over the next four years, an improvement over the nearly 40 percent increase in the previous offer, which was rejected in late October.
There were few other major changes between the two offers, aside from giving workers more flexibility in the form in which they could claim a $12,000 bonus for agreeing to the contract. The previous offer split that amount into a $7,000 cash payout and $5,000 401(k) contribution. The latest contract lets workers choose how much they want to receive as cash and how much they want deposited into their retirement accounts.
Given the end to the strike, I’m wondering whether the OP is re-evaluating his advice in his letter. Sure, they didn’t get the pension, but by staying out on strike, they moved their raise from 25% to 43%
You can have both short term gains and long term losses. Deere [the agricultural and construction machinery manufacturer] had some very costly strikes. The result is both increased income for current employees–and Deere moving jobs to Mexico.
Looking back, I think I was pretty close. The economic climate of today was much different than the 6 strikes that happened during my time at Boeing. But based on the formula Boeing uses for contract negotiations, a set dollar amount per hour per employee, I don’t think that number changed a whole lot. I knew the pension was a no go from the start. Medical costs stayed the same but that does not mean the coverage will stay the same. The pay increase is a big win for them, I would have liked to have seen something like that when I was working.
I talked to a friend that is a 3rd level manager, they were told to expect another brain drain similar to what happened to the voluntary layoffs of 4 years ago. The bump in the yearly pension amount for those that are vested is going to $105 per year from the $93 per year that I am currently getting. That will be an extra $240 a month for someone with 20 years of service. The day I left Boeing in 2020 via the voluntary layoff, the 737 Final Assembly lost over 1000 years of experience. You can’t put a bunch of new people in and expect the same level work.
As I said in my last point, the 6 strikes I went through lasted 49 to 66 days. This strike lasted 52. Money was starting to get tight and most knew it was time to get back to work. My neighbor is not thrilled though, his wife gave him a list of stuff to do during the strike, he did very little of it. Now he has to get it done in one day before returning to work tomorrow.
Really? You were chastising them for not accepting 25%. They held out and got 38%–more than 50% above the offer they rejected. That’s a pretty huge difference.
I’m just not convinced that that’s a real thing–or at least that it applied in this case. Do you have an independent cite for the claim that they have a “set dollar amount per hour per employee,” and that the offers weren’t materially different in that dollar amount?
And that’s also not counting the massive increase in employer contributions to the retirement plan that were subsequently negotiated.
That’s a WIDE margin of error on being “pretty close”.
It seems much closer to completely and totally wrong!
The idea that moving wages from $40 to $48/hour in the US is what caused the company to relocate production to a place with $5 hour wages seems positively fanciful.
40 years at Boeing, 11 years on the negotiating committee. I don’t have to prove anything to you.
No, but your writing fell into the “persuasive writing” genre, and I concluded, perhaps incorrectly, that you were trying to be persuasive. Evidence to back up your claims makes them more persuasive.
If i misunderstand you purpose–if you’re just singing your “magnificent yawp” with no effort to persuade–my apologies.
Moderating:
This is getting into “personal attack” territory. You could have asked his intent without doing that.
Apologies. It’s a flubbed reference to a Walt Whitman poem that talks about expressing oneself without prioritizing being understood–but I used the wrong adjective and messed up an obscure reference. Sorry, @racer72 , and sorry, @puzzlegal
For those interested here is an interesting video about Boeing and the strike (23 minutes):
