There will be light, intermittent blogging from this contributor for several days.
In the meantime, and speaking of slowdowns, one story to keep on eye is ongoing contract talks between Boeing and Machinists Union. Based on the latest in the Times and the P-I this could turn out to be a fractious affair.
This has all the ingredients of the union bargaining away new economy perks it would like such as an incentive plan (which SPEEA already found a way to embrace in their past negotiations) in order to keep old economy perks like retiree health coverage and traditional pensions - that are killing traditional blue collar industries across America. Just like the Machinists did last time.
And of course, in the end, the Machinists will wonder why Boeing is so willing to push work out to partners rather than keep it in house where the Machinists adversarial "It's our time this time" slogan says a lot more about their approach to healthy management-labor relations than they realize.
Posted by Eric Earling at August 24, 2008 09:14 AM | Email ThisHooray for Unions!
Posted by: Ryan on August 24, 2008 10:41 AMGovernment collusion with unions that deprives workers of rights -- including the right to not give one red cent to the unions -- is simply unamerican.
It might be interesting to draw on your years of experience designing and building aerospace products to solve the many obstacles BA management has self-imposed regarding the failure that is the 787.
Posted by: cmiklich on August 24, 2008 03:35 PM
Red China laughed at our "misfortune" on 9/11. "You're either with us, or with the terrorists." BA management (and how many folks here @ SP?) are clearly with the terrorists.
The 787 is one HUGE(!!!!) shining example of how well the “new” offloading works. That program is going fantastic, isn't it? Right on schedule.
Oooooooooooops!
I don't want my house built by folks who have never built a house before. I don't want my auto-repair estimate written by someone who has never spent a moment working on cars. And, I sure as HELL don't want to fly on parts that come from countries where just last week they were pissing upstream from their drinking water!
BA has THOUSANDS of managers and follow-up folks who have NO CLUE about any of the skills required to manfacture something as complex as an airplane. They think they can take some MIT designed process for making shoeboxes, scale it a little bigger, and all the same steps can be used to make airplanes.
I've been @ BA 30 years. My boss comes to me and asks me to tell him what's important and what we should be focussing on. Holy SH!T. BA is in deep crap with the management "team" that has been inflicted on the employees since the merger.
BTW, ALL of the 401(k) funds @ BA ARE WAAAAAAAAAY down for the year (except the guaranteed fund). The funds have been poorly performing for years. I'm not going to say how many tens of thousands I've lost this year. Or last.
Retirement is a 3 legged stool: SocSec, Pension, 401(k). Putting all your eggs in one basket is financial ignorance: Just like the folks at Enron.
So Eric, as soon as you’ve got a few dozen years in the company and have actually done something beside tell folks to paint lines around their desks and identify everything for 5S, you let me know. We’ll talk then about what it actually takes to design and build aerospace products.
And, BA better get some of those real aerospace folks in the door quick, ‘cause these McNerney-Sears-Druyan-Stonecipher-etc, etc types are killing us.
While it is true that unions- mostly the leaders -are traditionally pro democratic, it is also true that a surprising number of union members are on the R side.
The whole issue of negotiations is often blown out of proportion by the local press, helped of course by the company and union PR.
In the case of Boeing, it appears to be to their advantage to have a strike- as the resulting delivery delays carry little penalty
And the ongoing pension ripoffs not only by Boeing but by other large companies are legendary.
You might find the following URLS of interest- and the real story of improper dealings by both sides has yet to be told - but it is in progress
http://tinyurl.com/3hmzyh
http://tinyurl.com/3r67x3