ST. LOUIS — Boeing Machinists chose to remain on the job instead of walking out on strike — a move that was met with a mix of cheers and jeers inside the Chaifetz Arena on Sunday.
"The membership spoke," said Gordon King, president and directing business representative for the International Association of Machinists District 837. "Ultimately, it is their choice."
The union represents more than 2,500 Boeing Machinists in the St. Louis area. Union negotiators had recommended the workers reject the latest contract proposal, but King said he knew the vote could go either way.
The vote was 1,237 in favor of the contract and 838 opposed.
The result was a far cry from the vote taken just two weeks ago, when the union overwhelmingly rejected Boeing’s previous offer by a 3-to-1 margin. Since then, the fear of going on strike during a recession began to weigh more heavily on many union members, King and several union members said.
Boeing’s 4 1/2-year proposal will raise Machinists’ salaries an average of 3.6 percent a year and increase pension payments for those already employed by the company.
The latest company changes included removal of language requiring employees to pay for dependent medical care coverage during extended leaves of absence and caps to nonformulary name-brand drugs.
In a released statement, Boeing officials said the vote "allows us to keep delivering on our commitments to our customers." The Machinists in St. Louis work on the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the EA-18G Growler, the F-15 fighter jet and the C-17 Globemaster transport plane.
Boeing officials said their goal was to produce a contract that "recognizes both the significant contributions of our employees and the competitive environment in which we must compete to keep jobs here in St. Louis."
A strike would have only magnified what has been a difficult period for Boeing’s St. Louis-based defense business, which has been dealt setbacks in recent Pentagon budgets.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates opposes continued production of the C-17. Last year, the Pentagon scaled back Army modernization and missile-defense programs in which Boeing was a major player.
But Boeing also is working toward securing another multiyear order of locally built F/A-18 fighter jets.
As a strike loomed during the past week, Boeing offered a key concession, removing language requiring employees to pay for dependent medical care coverage during extended leaves of absence and capping the costs of nonformulary name-brand drugs.
But the most contentious issue — pension benefits — was left unchanged empire payday loans. Instead of a pension, Boeing will offer new hires after January 2012 an enhanced 401K contribution plan.
Though they accepted the provision in the new contract, current Machinists and retirees worry that the change means that their pensions, too, will be placed in peril in the future.
"I’m scared to death that they’re going to freeze the defined-benefit pension plan we have right now and end up selling it to an insurance company and turn it into an annuity," King said. "And then what’s going to happen from there, a good possibility of losing what they’ve got."
Maintenance worker Herman Ward of Florissant, a 24-year Boeing employee, said he was relieved the contract was accepted. He was concerned that a work stoppage would have resulted in the elimination of his job. He said he supported the company’s contract offer in both votes this month.
"There’s a possibility that when you go out, you won’t get back in," Ward said of a strike. "There are outside contractors ready to take our jobs … I could not afford to take a chance of losing everything that I’ve worked so hard to get just because another decision someone else wanted to make for us."
Several groups of workers gathered in the Chaifetz Arena parking garage following the vote. Some refused to give their names to reporters. Few would say how they voted. Many expressed relief that the negotiations were over.
"We have a job," said one Machinist between sips of beer. "The way things are right now, you should be thankful you have a job."
But Boeing flight mechanic Peggy Chapin of Granite City said she was disappointed by the outcome — even though both she and her husband, Tom, also a Boeing Machinist, would have been on strike at the same time.
"I think they’re scared," she said of fellow union members moments after Sunday’s vote. "I can understand the economic times and everything. Everybody’s scared. Sometimes you’ve got to stand up and fight for what you believe in."
U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., said in a statement that he was glad that fight did not take the form of a strike, noting the importance of Boeing’s contributions to national defense. "Our nation’s warfighters and our allies depend on the dedicated and skilled Machinists of Boeing," he said.
Source