IAM asked NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to withdraw the charges and he agreed.
“This is the outcome we always preferred, and one that is typical for our agency,” Solomon said. “About 90% of meritorious NLRB cases are resolved” by “agreements between the parties or settlements with the agency before the conclusion of litigation.”
“From the beginning of this case, and at every step in the process, we encouraged” the Machinists and Boeing “to find a mutually acceptable resolution that protects the rights of workers under federal labor law. The collective bargaining agreement, ratified this week, does just that,” Solomon stated.
Members of Machinists District 751, which represents the vast majority of Boeing workers -– those in the Pacific Northwest – ratified the four-year pact, which is really a revised extension of the current union-Boeing agreement, by a 74%-26% margin. Machinists at Boeing’s other facilities also ratified it. It runs through Sept. 8, 2016.
The key point in the new pact is that Boeing agrees to manufacture two of its new wide-bodied planes, the 737MAX and the 737NG, at its factories in Washington state and suppliers in Portland, Ore., thus providing more than enough work there and guaranteeing job security for Machinists. That was the top goal of union members.
“The company intends to continue production of wide-body airplanes in its Everett (Wash.) facilities,” the contract extension adds. That puts an end to Boeing’s plan to shut an Everett production line.
It also led the union to withdraw its complaint that Boeing moved production work for its other wide-body plane, the 787 Dreamliner, to a new plant in anti-union South Carolina strictly to retaliate against the Machinists in the Pacific Northwest for standing up for their rights.
Years of statements by company officials, from the CEO on down, that retaliation was precisely the purpose of the move, broke labor law and led to the Machinists’ complaint to the NLRB, Solomon’s charge against Boeing and the subsequent uproar.
“As the trial began in June, the parties came to realize that their mutual success required a new approach,” Solomon said. “The result is a contract that helps guarantee their success and creates job security for workers. I am pleased the collective bargaining process has succeeded and the parties have begun a promising new chapter in their relationship.”
The tentative pact begins by declaring: “The parties desire to establish a new working relationship to ensure critical mutual objectives are met. These objectives are: Sustainment and growth of jobs, providing fair wages and benefits; delivery of safe, reliable, market-leading products and services at competitive prices; meeting cost and productivity pressures from existing and future competitors in both the commercial and defense businesses, and; working closely together to achieve these and other objectives central to mutual success.”
It does so by establishing a joint labor-management top-level committee to iron out difficulties and disputes when they arise during the new pact. The group will meet monthly “to review and discuss key elements of the business and workforce including market and competition; performance including quality, safety, productivity, schedule and cost; product development and implications to the workforce; work transfer; overtime; and changes in the external environment impacting the company.
“In reviewing productivity, the parties will also assess areas such as employee engagement/involve¬ment, the job classification system, multiple machine operation, and the ability to utilize non-Boeing labor for certain types of work,” the new pact says.
The Boeing Machinists also will get 2% yearly raises, quarterly cost-of-living increases, pension increases and a $5,000-per-worker signing bonus, less taxes.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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IAM asked NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to withdraw the charges and he agreed.
“This is the outcome we always preferred, and one that is typical for our agency,” Solomon said. “About 90% of meritorious NLRB cases are resolved” by “agreements between the parties or settlements with the agency before the conclusion of litigation.”
“From the beginning of this case, and at every step in the process, we encouraged” the Machinists and Boeing “to find a mutually acceptable resolution that protects the rights of workers under federal labor law. The collective bargaining agreement, ratified this week, does just that,” Solomon stated.
Members of Machinists District 751, which represents the vast majority of Boeing workers -– those in the Pacific Northwest – ratified the four-year pact, which is really a revised extension of the current union-Boeing agreement, by a 74%-26% margin. Machinists at Boeing’s other facilities also ratified it. It runs through Sept. 8, 2016.
The key point in the new pact is that Boeing agrees to manufacture two of its new wide-bodied planes, the 737MAX and the 737NG, at its factories in Washington state and suppliers in Portland, Ore., thus providing more than enough work there and guaranteeing job security for Machinists. That was the top goal of union members.
“The company intends to continue production of wide-body airplanes in its Everett (Wash.) facilities,” the contract extension adds. That puts an end to Boeing’s plan to shut an Everett production line.
It also led the union to withdraw its complaint that Boeing moved production work for its other wide-body plane, the 787 Dreamliner, to a new plant in anti-union South Carolina strictly to retaliate against the Machinists in the Pacific Northwest for standing up for their rights.
Years of statements by company officials, from the CEO on down, that retaliation was precisely the purpose of the move, broke labor law and led to the Machinists’ complaint to the NLRB, Solomon’s charge against Boeing and the subsequent uproar.
“As the trial began in June, the parties came to realize that their mutual success required a new approach,” Solomon said. “The result is a contract that helps guarantee their success and creates job security for workers. I am pleased the collective bargaining process has succeeded and the parties have begun a promising new chapter in their relationship.”
The tentative pact begins by declaring: “The parties desire to establish a new working relationship to ensure critical mutual objectives are met. These objectives are: Sustainment and growth of jobs, providing fair wages and benefits; delivery of safe, reliable, market-leading products and services at competitive prices; meeting cost and productivity pressures from existing and future competitors in both the commercial and defense businesses, and; working closely together to achieve these and other objectives central to mutual success.”
It does so by establishing a joint labor-management top-level committee to iron out difficulties and disputes when they arise during the new pact. The group will meet monthly “to review and discuss key elements of the business and workforce including market and competition; performance including quality, safety, productivity, schedule and cost; product development and implications to the workforce; work transfer; overtime; and changes in the external environment impacting the company.
“In reviewing productivity, the parties will also assess areas such as employee engagement/involve¬ment, the job classification system, multiple machine operation, and the ability to utilize non-Boeing labor for certain types of work,” the new pact says.
The Boeing Machinists also will get 2% yearly raises, quarterly cost-of-living increases, pension increases and a $5,000-per-worker signing bonus, less taxes.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.