Strike won't fly at Boeing if machinists want to keep 787 production here

BOEING is signaling that unless it gets a no-strike assurance from the Aerospace Machinists, a second production line for the 787 will be in some other state, probably South Carolina. The Aerospace Machinists need to take this seriously.

The natural reaction from union members will be that Boeing is trying to squeeze them. In a sense, it is. But consider why. The 787 is behind schedule. This is partly — not entirely, but partly — because the Aerospace Machinists went on strike for 56 days last year.

Earlier this year, Virgin Atlantic's boss, Richard Branson, said: "If people in Seattle build our planes and deliver them on time and, to be frank, don't go on strike, then we'll continue to work with Boeing. If we have our airline completely messed up, with tremendous damage done to our own work force, then we'll go to Embraer or Airbus."

When customers talk like that on national television, Boeing has to listen.

Labor relations at Boeing have become a ritual combat: Every two or three contracts, the Aerospace Machinists go out. They blame it on the company, and the company blames it on the machinists.

Set aside who has the better argument. Blame is about the past. This is about the future. Aircraft assembly creates the kind of blue-collar jobs South Carolina would roll over and play dead for. For the Puget Sound region, these jobs cannot be replaced.

Specifically, the issue is whether the next 787 line will be in Everett or in Charleston. Very likely, there will be a second line in one place or the other, and in order to get it up and running by 2012, a commitment will have to be made before the end of this year. Property will be purchased or space leased, permits applied for, managers assigned. The ball gets rolling within the next few months.

What needs to happen is a new relationship of management with labor, so that the two are partners against Airbus. Management's part begins with treating workers like adults. The union's part begins with its assurance that the strike weapon will no longer be used in normal bargaining. Like a nuclear bomb, it exerts power without being dropped.

This is an accommodation with modern business that most of America's successful unions made decades ago, and it needs to happen at Boeing now.