Rolandownthehill

The Test of Wills at Boeing

I started off by replying to one poster and found myself looking deeper into the state of affairs. Not to forget to mention that,it doesn't take a genius to outsource jobs. Nor does it take an MBA. Those who live in the real world; understand how the game is played. So is Boeing surprised by the union's backbone, or was it planned all along?
In business, it's screw your competitor; employee; government; customer; your fellow employee. all to get you more money for that bigger payout. Now the company wants to deny union workers a just increase in pay or benefits, because that is the way to get higher pay for your exec's. Im sure Mcnerney had big checks for all exec's if the negotiating team had pulled this one off.
Why is the union striking; is it just about money? No, even thou the press can't seem to get past the front end numbers.
I can only speak for me; but my view is that we are striking not just for pay, but for the obscene amounts of disparity between Boeing workers and exec's. Union pension is 72 dollars a year; exec's is 400 a year. Top exec's is 4000 a year!
We all know that Boeing can't go back all the way and reverse outsourcing; it can do some, but not all. Airbus is outsourcing to.
China, may become the next big competitor. Didn't help with Boeing showing them how to build airplanes thou.
What is it that the average union member wants; job security improvements: jobs for future employees; Better retirement; a fair wage for trying to live the middle class dream. Most people understand higher costs to consumers; bad money management from our government; peak oil - hell peak everything! Were a nation that has prospered in good times and want
them to continue. The question is "can we?" Energy crises; food crises; benefit crises; corruption crises! Political leadership is gone; corrupted by big banks; the IMF and corporate drive to make wall street happy. But wall street is corrupt also; you have a better chance of winning in Vegas! Social security is 7 trillion in debt! Medicare is 34 trillion in debt! Derivatives are 100 trillion in paper (worthless paper?). Were not on the gold standard anymore; we have fees coming at us from all directions. Our rights have become privileges?
I could go on and on; but some would just label me a conspiracy nut; so I will let you find how the dots connect.
So, is it any wonder that were scared! Is the American way of life over? Can we wake up and stop blaming everyone else and look into the mirror and find, that we are the problem; that we are the solution! I sometimes wonder why Boeing and the union
are always at odds. Is it just a respect issue? Not seeing the other, as a useful component to the entire body, our symbol in the sky? Perhaps it's time to look at each other as a team and not as an adversary. But this would take a leap of faith and many
working at this company can't see anything but the past to condemn each other. With so much suspicion in the wings, it's hard to make a move first, in a direction other than one up man-ship or a sign of weakness.
I think the first place to start, is a state of being in the right mind to listen; not just the word itself - but the meaning behind it.
If we cannot change our way of doing, our so called business; then we are doomed to like Russia before us; in total collapse of our way of life and the future as we know it. There is to much at stake here, to just stand in the way of progress. I could tell
you it's the two party system; or the capitalistic system we live under. But alas, I think it's the state of man; his fear of the
unknown. But like a favorite episode of Star Trek, when the majority was afraid of the minority metamorphosing and what impact that would have on the other group, if the minority metamorphosis into something different; leading the majority to find it's self changing it's very nature. Would fear cause that potential nature to run for it's life or destroy itself. Would the nature of man metamorphosize into what he was meant to be all along?
One machinist view of many years in the trenches.....