Boeing Charleston workers to vote on Machinists decertification

Production workers at Boeing's newly acquired assembly plant in Charleston, S.C., plan to vote Sept. 10 on a petition to get rid of the Machinists union.

At a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Charleston this morning, the company and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) agreed to the vote.

A decision to decertify the IAM at the Charleston facility could influence whether Boeing will move future airplane assembly work there, including a second production line for its new 787 Dreamliner.

If the vote succeeds, nonunion Boeing Charleston will compete directly with the unionized Everett plant for the new 787 work. That raises the specter for the Puget Sound region of Boeing developing for the first time a major final assembly site on the East Coast that could siphon off production work on future airplanes.

The petition that sparked the vote was filed by Dennis Murray, a quality inspector at the Charleston plant unhappy with the way the union forced through a weak contract last November without significant consultation with employees.

"I want people to have a fair voice in what happens to them," said Murray. "That's the position a union traditionally fights for. In this case, it's the workers fighting against the union to achieve that."

The union was not immediately able to say how many workers in the bargaining unit of almost 300 employees pay dues. Murray claimed more than 75 percent support for his petition among the workforce, based on his own canvassing for signatures.

In the weeks ahead, the company will make its preference clear to the workforce: Boeing management wants rid of the union at the plant.

Company labor relations spokesman Tim Healy said managers will share "facts and data" with the workforce outlining the differing treatment of unionized and nonunion workers at Boeing. "We'll tell them we prefer to deal with our employees directly, without an intermediary," Healy said.

IAM national aerospace coordinator Mark Blondin said the Charleston workforce has the right to choose. He expressed confidence that "they are going to choose the IAM."

"Facts don't lie," said Blondin. "Boeing does not treat nonunion workers well."

Last month, Boeing bought the Charleston assembly plant, which builds the composite plastic aft fuselage for the Dreamliner, from Texas-based Vought.

The Charleston operation had been plagued with startup problems, partly due to the inexperienced workforce. In addition, the long delays in the 787 program left Vought with no income stream and a requirement for further hefty investment it was unwilling to make.

To secure control of its supply chain, Boeing stepped in with a $580 million purchase, plus the forgiveness of loans to Vought that bring the total cost to $1 billion.

A major obstacle the union must overcome before the September vote is resentment among the Charleston workforce over the contract the union signed last November. The contract delivered a meager annual raise of 1.5 percent, with a possible merit bonus of up to 2 percent determined by managers.

The union ratified that contract in a last-minute, barely publicized "emergency meeting" with only 13 people present, to meet a one-year deadline. Murray was one of the workers incensed by that tactic. The Boeing acquisition offers a new opportunity to revisit the decision.

"The contract with Vought did not live up to many of those members' expectations," Blondin conceded. "Not everybody got to vote."

But he said the rushed vote was necessary because the company had dragged out negotiations deliberately to try to oust the union. He pointed out that the contract, however weak economically, secured recall rights for those workers being laid off. He said the union now has a right to improve the contract.

"We've got a great track record in negotiating contracts," Blondin said. "The leverage will depend on the people and how strong they want to be."

The labor showdown in Charleston is happening against a backdrop of ongoing, tense negotiations between Boeing and the IAM in the Puget Sound region.

Last fall, the IAM signed a new four-year contract here after a two-month strike. Since then, the company has mounted an unprecedented behind-the-scenes campaign to reopen that contract and win a long-term no-strike agreement.

Boeing chairman Jim McNerney forcefully conveyed that message to Washington state political representatives, including Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Bremerton), in a meeting in Washington, D.C., in March.

He told the politicians that union relations would be a major factor in the decision about where to locate a second 787 production line; the head of the 787 program said the decision may be made before year-end.

In July, following the announcement that Boeing was buying the Charleston plant, Dicks and Gregoire publicly called for both the company and the union to make concessions, reach an agreement and secure future Boeing airplane work for this region.

Talks between the union and the company have been ongoing, though the union insists that it still has received no formal proposal of a no-strike agreement.

At a conference in Lynnwood last week, Boeing vice president Fred Kiga said that creating a second final-assembly site outside the Puget Sound region would offer the company the opportunity to continue production in the event of a work stoppage here.

But industry analysts are skeptical that Boeing would make the second 787 assembly line decision based on the union issue alone.

Creating an assembly line in Charleston would require substantial investment in tooling and buildings. And, the lack of an experienced workforce in the area would inevitably bring added risk to a program already more than two years behind schedule.

The IAM's Blondin doubts that Boeing would risk further delays by placing new 787 work outside Puget Sound.

"Is Boeing making an emotional decision or an economic decision?" Blondin asked rhetorically.

Still, if Boeing is insistent on radically reducing its vulnerability to labor unrest, a win in the Sept. 10 vote in Charleston would certainly provide the company extra leverage.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com