Fineprint

The Test of Wills at Boeing

To be fair you have to actually take a look at previous contracts and how this one is being reported so inaccurately that the PR is on a Boeing slant. First the 2002 contract strongly favored Boeing leaving workers with increased medical premiums, no general wage increase, Boeing even refused to pay for the holiday of labor day on that contract. The workers gave in again in 2005 with again no general wage increase. So "to be fair" at Boeing the union workers went six years without a general wage increase. The company was still going through tough times (post 9/11) then and insisted on and received very deep cutting concessions from its workers. Now that the company is flush with new orders including a backlog of 3600 commercial planes (unprecedented in it's history) and as they reported in their most recent annual report, a cash on hand amount of ten billion dollars. Yet they are still demanding concessions. Also most disparagingly, the proposed contract's 11% general wage increase over three years is being misinterpreted in and by the media as 11% in each year of the contract. The contract actually states 5% the first year and 3% in the remaining two years of the contract or 5%+3%+3% which equals 11%. So the proposed contract actually amounts to an average of 3.6% a year still below the rate of inflation. Boeing is far from hurting. Neither are it's upper management The CEO James Mcnerney with barely three years under his belt is already the largest individual shareholder with 294,425 shares. According to the New York times his total compensation package for 2007 was $12,904,478. The Boeing corporation by all account is not going through anything close to tough times.