Sound Politics: Local Laugh Line of the Weekend

May 10, 2008

Local Laugh Line of the Weekend

From today's Seattle Times coverage of the commencement of official talks between Boeing and the Machinists Union:

But [national Machinists Union President Tom] Buffenbarger dismissed out of hand one of Boeing's top goals: a proposal to switch new hires from Boeing's traditional pension plan to a 401(k)-style retirement plan.
He said that idea, outlined recently by Kight, meddles with union members' "very sacred benefits."

He said the move would simply transfer risk from Boeing to employees.

"We are not interested on gambling our pension plans on Wall Street," he said.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, where does he think pension plans - both corporate and government - invest the money in their pension funds for years before eventually paying it out to pensioners?

Moreover, it would be interesting to see a survey of younger workers, say the 25-34 age group, asking them whether they would prefer to have a healthy 401(k) match with access to simple-to-use lifecycle and index funds, or whether they'd like to put their faith in the company that hires them now having the resources to pay a pension in 30+ years.

It's not as if pension plans are doing great or have an outstanding recent history in our rapidly evolving economy. Just ask the good folks in the airline and steel industries.

Posted by Eric Earling at May 10, 2008 08:48 PM | Email This

Comments

1. I can't wait for the day we as a nation wake up and abolish the union monopoly. We should have instituted competitive worker associations decades ago. Unions screw the many for the few, and are a great cancer to this nation, our freedom, and our economy.

Posted by: AP on May 10, 2008 08:41 PM

2. Why are jobs leaving this country? Manufacturers and others have had enough government. It's easierr and cheaper to operate elsewhere.

Posted by: Politically Incorrect on May 10, 2008 09:30 PM

3. I wonder if this guy realizes that when a company files for bankruptcy they can be absolved of the pention promises made to employees? Just ask any retired Delta Airline pilot how much of their promised pension they are receiveing from Delta after Delta filled for bankruptcy a few years back. The answer not much if any. Many of those pilots have had to go back to work due to the loss or reduction of their pension.

Give me a 401k over a pension anyday!

Posted by: TrueSoldier on May 10, 2008 10:28 PM

4. Let's let these folks shoot themselves in the foot, just like the UAW workers have done in the auto industry. Eventually with enough pain,loss and bankrupt companies in their wakes, even die-hard Democrat voting union employees will learn.

You put your faith in the handout machine, and one day it stops.

Posted by: Jeff B. on May 10, 2008 11:59 PM

5. I actually heard a teacher tell me that they didn't want to be free from the union because they might get taken advantage of by the school board, the same school board they thought was a bunch of boobs.

I mean, he didn't think teachers could read a contract or negotiate a dispute. They needed someone to hold their hand and do it for them.

Idiocy.

No, the union is really worried that one day they will be kicked out and treated with the same respect any shuckster deserves. They are deadweight in our society, pompous fools who create their own job by impressing upon the masses how stupid and incompetent they are. In other words, democrats.

Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on May 11, 2008 12:36 AM

6. Wow hard to believe isn't it. If Boeing doesn't do well on Wallstreet then many people will not invest. If they don't invest in Boeing the company has little funds to do R&R on new planes.

Not selling new planes means no new money for your retirement.

Plus the company finally goes belly up.

Ahhhh IAM. Does anyone have a brain over there?

Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on May 11, 2008 07:21 AM

7. Can a union survive without the existance of a company? NO!

Can a company survive without the existance of a union? ABSOLUTELY! And very well I might add.

Wake up and smell the jet fuel, IAM.

Posted by: diamondshards on May 11, 2008 08:18 AM

8. I guess the free market system concept evades them. Nobody buys jets, no money coming in. I was at Bombardier-Learjet for 6 years. When things go south, guess what corporations quit buying? New clean-sheet design aircraft cost a ton of money in R and D alone. Where does it come from. Nice explanation to the IAM.

Posted by: GMCASSEL AMH1(AW) USN RET on May 11, 2008 09:25 AM

9. I quit the dinosaur IAM some years back over their leftist publications and practices. Private-sector unions are losing their grip by protecting the lazy and incompetent, which is consistent with unions' socialist roots. Corporations bypass the unions by outsourcing products and services, thereby depleting the union workforce and negating the power of the unions. Fat-cat union officials like Buffenbarger are too stupid to alter their negotiating tactics and work WITH companies that DO have other options. Buffenbarger would rather watch his empire crumble than admit the era of the union stranglehold is over.

Posted by: Saltherring on May 11, 2008 09:45 AM

10. No one said machinists were smart.

Posted by: Thomas B. on May 11, 2008 12:28 PM

11. It's hilarious they don't realize that their pension plan money is invested in wall street.

Posted by: Michele on May 11, 2008 01:42 PM

12. YEAH AND PENSION PLANS ARE SOOOOOO FREAKING SECURE.

Get a freaking clue.

Posted by: Andy on May 11, 2008 02:05 PM

13. I'd love to see an initiative to switch State and Local governments to a 401k Plan.

It would save Tens of Billions to the already taxed out taxpayers in this state.

Posted by: GS on May 11, 2008 03:15 PM

14. If it were not for the good old IAM, I , a salaried slave at the lazy B would not have my defined benefit pension, as modest as it is.

Now, I have both. Short live the IAM though.

Remember the B buying out Vought from the GA partnership. Go to the Carolinas, and ask them what they are gonna do with that big empty spot in the GA factory.

Can the B build 3 787's a week in one production line?

Add up the last two sentences, stir, and watch the IAM shrink. You heard it here first.

The Geezer has spaketh.

Posted by: The Geezer on May 11, 2008 05:34 PM