Elinda wrote:
Yesterday Boeing settled on a contract deal with it's aerospace workers, though settled might give the wrong type of picture. Basically they blackmailed Seattle workers by threatening to move production of their new 777x if the workers weren't willing to simply abide with Boeings demands - and Boeings demands were pretty much moving profits/wealth from the workers to shareholders.
Things have been going downhill up there steadily for a long time. The workers were stuck in a tight place. Not only were some 30 different cities offering up attractive bids for the work, but the workers there (even with the new contract), are among the best compensated in the state, especially for a traditional manufacturing job.
Adding to it all, there's a lot of people in the region who feel the members of the union are downright spoiled, which makes for an interesting twist in the whole mess. Add in those who aren't in the union, but are still relying on Boeing either directly or indirectly for income. They're usually paid less, and don't get a vote in the whole thing. Crabs in the bucket perhaps? An odd thing for a state with such a high minimum wage, but no one accused Washington of being normal. On the flip side it's not like Boeing has had huge success exporting their work elsewhere. Their newer non-union factories in other locations are still working to get up to snuff, so it was a giant game of chicken. Who needed who more?
Anyway, I think the actual vote was something like a week ago or so? There's was a lot of controversy about the union holding the vote before everyone had returned from the holiday break. In seems a lot of the younger folks pushed through the vote, ones who are looking to work there the next 30 years. I hear the $10k checks helped a bit too, that and the $5k check they all get later on.
I suppose if there's a silver lining they don't have to worry about the company pulling a Detroit and not being able to fund the pensions in the future.