Flight International online news 10:30GMT: Boeing today remains as quiet as its production lines on how an ongoing strike by its 18,000-plus mechanics will affect its delivery targets for 2005.
The strike started on September 2, after members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) rejected a ‘best and final’ three-year contract offer Boeing values at up to $15,000 for each employee.
Since then, Boeing has neither produced an aircraft nor a statement on the industrial action.
Meanwhile IAM is calling for the company to reopen negotiations and reiterated its resolve not to back down.
“Our picket lines are strong, and will remain that way until we win, ” it said on 5 September.
IAM Local 751 says for the strike to end, Boeing has must meet its “substantial” pension demands, retain seniority in decided ‘team leaders’, maintain the company’s Wichita employees in the contract and drop a proposed benefits ‘B scale’ for new employees.
Boeing, however, is currently adding nothing to a September 1 statement, where it said: “We are disappointed with the outcome of the IAM vote. No one ever benefits from a strike.
“We don’t intend to assemble airplanes during this strike. We offered a comprehensive contract that compared favorably with others in our industry and in the regions where we operate.”
DARREN SHANNON/WASHINGTON
Source: Flight International
