SEATTLE, Nov 14: Boeing Co workers finished voting on a landmark labor contract on Wednesday, with results due around 9 p.M. Pacific Time (0500 GMT) on a historic decision that could forever alter the course of Boeing’s presence in Washington state.
The 31,000 International Association of Machinists members are choosing between a tough contract that will secure an estimated 20 years of work building Boeing’s newest jet or one that ends their traditional pension plan and raises healthcare costs. If the workers reject the deal, Boeing may try to build the jet, known as the 777X, in non-union states or in Japan.
The union kept most media out of the room where votes were being tallied, a departure from past practice. Media earlier filmed ballots being dropped off at the main union hall from other polling locations.
‘This is a highly emotional vote, it’s not a usual vote,’ said Tanya Hutchins, a spokeswoman for the union.
Workers began lining up in predawn darkness on Wednesday outside the union hall in Everett, Washington and elsewhere in the Seattle area and in Oregon. Boeing builds the current 777 model in Everett.
As voting wrapped up around 5 p.M., some workers at the union hall in Seattle said they strongly opposed the deal.
‘It goes against everything that we’ve fought for over the years,’ said John Orcutt, 42, a 17-year union member and hydraulic tube bender in Auburn, Washington.
Orcutt said he doesn’t believe Boeing would build the 777X wing elsewhere because the Washington workforce is trained, tooling for the plane is in place and new production lines are risky. He expects the company to eventually come back with another offer if the contract is voted down.
‘I think they’re totally bluffing,’ he said.
But others said they would accept the new deal, fearing Boeing would eliminate 20,000 jobs over the next decade as it moved work elsewhere.
‘I don’t think Boeing’s bluffing at all,’ said another worker. ‘They did it with second line of the 787.’
Separately, Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney confirmed on Wednesday that Boeing would consider moving production elsewhere, but declined to say if the vote was a ‘take it or leave it deal,’ according to an interview with KING 5 TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate station.
‘If they turn it down, then we’ll figure out what to do next,’ McNerney said.
Boeing’s alternatives include non-union South Carolina, where the company currently assembles 787 Dreamliners and where it broke ground on Tuesday for a new factory that will make engine housings for its forthcoming 737 MAX planes.
Boeing is buying more than 200 acres near the 787 campus to expand its facilities and has agreed to invest more than $1 billion and hire 2,000 more workers over the next eight years.
Boeing also may consider giving the wing work to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Japanese industrial giant that already makes wings for the 787.
Reuters reported exclusively on Tuesday that Mitsubishi had made a detailed proposal to Boeing for building the 777X wing.
Boeing also has facilities in Long Beach, California, where it builds the C-17 military transport plane. That program is ending, freeing space and workers for 777X production.
Some Wall Street analysts expected the union to approve the contract by a slim margin since losing the work is worse than losing the pension.
But a no vote on Wednesday might not mean the 777X ultimately gets built outside Washington, because moving the work would bring logistical headaches, analysts and industry experts said.
Boeing already has a smooth-running factory line in Everett for the 777, its best-selling wide body jet.
It could use the same workforce and large, fixed tooling to build the 777X, an updated version with essentially the same aluminum fuselage, and new wings, engines and systems.
Boeing also is scaling back output of other jets built in Everett, notably the 747-8, which would make room for the 777X.
Any other site would require time to set up tooling, train workers and deal with the distance between its current 777 operations and the 777X line.
‘The door isn’t shut on Washington,’ said Ken Herbert, an analyst at investment firm Canaccord Genuity in San Francisco.
(AGENCIES)
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