Despite what I thought was a decent offer by Boeing, the latest contract offer was soundly rejected by the member of my union. This will be my 4th strike and second in 3 years. Unlike the previous strikes, I have a little money saved this time. This really sucks.
Do you know him? Maybe you can kick his heinie. 
I’ve heard a little about this on KPLU, but not being a Boeing employee I don’t know all of the issues. ISTR hearing something about a pretty good package up front, that was taken away on the back end. If that’s the case, I can understand why the members would vote to strike. From what I heard, the strike was approved by a large majority and they didn’t want to give Boeing 48 hours to come up with a better offer.
Can you offer any insights?
I’m sorry to hear your news. I haven’t looked at the offer, (and I take your word anyway) but I have to wonder what they are thinking in *this *economy…
Good luck, I hope it ends quickly.
That well and truly sucks. I was hoping things would be worked out.
The vote on the contract was last Wednesday, 80% rejected the contract and 87% reaffirmed the strike sanction vote from last July. Boeing was offering 11% in pay raises, a couple of bonuses and some redoing of the medical benefits. The biggest issues seem to outsourcing of factory jobs, retirement benefits and the pay of new hires. The governor of the state stepped in and extended the old contract for 48 hours so more talks could take place. It was announced a little bit ago that the talks had broke down and the strike is on. My thinking most folks want the strike not for the contract issues, it’s more about getting some time off from work. There are a lot of shops, especially the 787 line, that have been working lots of overtime, these folks have saved a lot of this overtime money for a strike. A couple of folks I work with were so certain of a strike they planned vacations around the strike. The union has also invested lots of time and energy getting everyone all charged up for a strike. It wasn’t unusual to have a couple thousand marching at lunchtime making a whole lot of noise.
I’m going to take advantage of having the time to get some stuff done. Folks will likely be seeing a lot more of me here on the boards.