This is what economic destruction looks like?
Jan 3, 2014, 11:46 AM | Updated: Oct 14, 2024, 9:53 am
Boeing machinist Eddie Bjorgo greets workers heading to a union hall to cast ballots with signs urging a "no" vote on Friday (AP).
(AP)
Eleven years of job security, benefits, and overtime. Does that sound like economic destruction to you?
If you’re a local machinist union leader, then yes. That is the way they described Boeing’s contract offer to build the new 777X line in a letter to members.
“You need to look at the facts and the economic destruction you’d have to live under for the next 11 years without any opportunity to change any provisions of the contract,” reads an excerpt of the letter, according to The Everett Herald.
Boze questioned whether those union leaders really have their heads on straight. Wouldn’t a better definition of “economic destruction” be those workers going without work at all? Wouldn’t economic destruction meaning losing the 777X to another state?
Some benefits union workers would enjoy from accepting the contract, Boze explained, are annual cost of living increasing beginning in 2016, plus one percent pay increases every other year; the lowest-level worker would begin making just $25,000 per year, they but would reach $66,000 after six years.
Meanwhile, Boze said, the median household income in Everett is around $47,000 – that includes all wage earners in the household.
“It doesn’t matter if you think Boeing is a hero, zero, villain, or soulless player in the game. The question for me is what’s the best you can get? What’s the best you can hope for?
“This is defined as economic destruction? Is there any place in the world that would feel that way?” Boze said.
