New union president could mean a fresh start for Boeing Machinists
Mar 6, 2014, 5:58 AM | Updated: 1:02 pm
Labor peace is a good thing for Boeing. It’s a good thing for Washington. Workers with job security and good pay spend money in restaurants, buy new cars and houses.
But below Boeing’s rosy exterior, under the new long-term Machinists’ contract, is anger and bitterness, and that is likely going to get more intense as the Machinists vote to elect a new leader.
Many union Machinists still feel like they were sold out by Boeing, sold out by their union – and even sold out by their fellow union members.
The nominees are:
Jon Holden, a union official who in internal meetings strongly opposed the Boeing contract offer.
John Lopez Jr., a former president of the local C unit in Auburn, who spoke out publicly at rallies against the Boeing 777X offer.
Roy Wilkinson, who works on IAM/Boeing joint programs, which support union members with health and safety resources, training and career advice.
Don’t forget, just 600 votes separated the yes votes from the no votes in the January contract vote that guaranteed the 777X would be built in Washington. There are about 30,000 Boeing Machinists in the state.
We’re hearing that morale on the factory floor is still low, even two months after the controversial vote.
“People are unhappy,” Boeing analyst Scott Hamilton said. “It’s going to take a long time for the membership to get over this. The membership has a very long memory.”
Boeing is counting on the Machinists’ love of the company and the planes they make to ease the tension. Commercial airplanes CEO Ray Conner said this a few weeks ago about mending fences: “They love our company,” Conner said of the Machinists. “They love our customers. They love the products that they work on, and that’s what we’re going to build on.”
But mending those fences is not going to be made any easier by Thursday’s vote for a new union president. Two of the three candidates on the ballot fought hard and openly against the Boeing contract vote and against a yes vote.
Hamilton believes that could just fuel the fires of discontent.
“The relations between Boeing and the union, of course right now, are at a new low,” he said. “A more militant leader may make it a little more difficult to repair those relationships.”
The leading candidate in this election has said he wants to reunify the fractured union with aggressive enforcement of the contract.
There are national elections inside the International Association of Machinists next month. Candidates include Machinists who are still not happy with how all of this went down.
It’s unlikely they will unseat those in power now.
The discontent inside the union here in Washington and across the country has been heard, and a militant Machinists Union could cause problems for Boeing and what’s bad for Boeing can also be bad for the rest of us.
