Boeing is about to build the Boeing 777X and the company is deciding where the plane will be built.
As a ‘goodwill’ gesture, Boeing is offering the work to its unionized workforce in Puget Sound but it comes with a catch: The union members are going to have to give some stuff up.
Machinists union members face a watershed vote next week on a contract offer from Boeing. To ensure they will fabricate the 777X’s giant composite wings and assemble the airplane here, they’ll have to hold their noses and sign off on the loss of long-cherished benefits.
[snip]
….[T]he union leadership agreed to take to its members a bitter pill: a tough Boeing proposal for a new eight-year contract with big cuts in future pension and health-care benefits.
Union members will earn a $10,000 signing bonus if it passes, payable within a month.
But the pension change would be a major loss for current employees: Traditional pension accruals would stop, to be replaced by an alternative company-funded retirement savings plan.
Clearly the terms were difficult for the Machinists leaders to accept.
Of course, the union members don’t have to accept the deal.
On the other hand, Boeing also doesn’t have to build the planes in Washington State either.
