Boeing Deal Comes At A Price Workers Have Lost An Average Of $5,100 While On Strike

Union Machinists at The Boeing Co. could vote today to end a 6 1/2 week strike, but the settlement comes at a cost to both sides.

The nearly 33,000 striking members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers - including 293 in Spokane - each have lost on average $5,100 in pay since forming picket lines Oct. 6, union officials confirmed. That figure includes the $100-per-week strike pay that IAM paid the pickets.

The new contract would grant an immediate cost-of-living pay raise of 30 cents an hour. But at that rate, Machinists would have to work eight years to regain the money they forfeited to protest Boeing’s initial contract proposal.

The three-year contract also calls for the union to drop unfair labor charges that could have forced the nation’s largest airplane manufacturer to pay wages lost because of the strike.

“Nobody ever said that going on strike is easy,” said union spokesman Matt Bates in Seattle. “Very often, you don’t get your money back. You fight to preserve what you had in the past, or maybe make some headway for the future.”

Money was never the biggest issue of the strike, and union negotiators believe they were successful in halting Boeing’s worst offenses - reduction of job security and medical benefits.

At the same time, Boeing production suffered at a yet unknown cost to the company.

Diane Ressler, spokeswoman for Boeing’s fabrication plant in Airway Heights, said the factory has been operating one, rather than two, shifts, with some employees working overtime Saturdays and Sundays. The crews primarily have been filling critical and emergency orders for replacement air ducts and floor panels on existing airplanes and those under construction at Boeing’s hangar plants in Everett and Renton.

“We certainly have work for them (Machinists) to do,” Ressler said, pausing on the factory floor. “We’ll be glad to have them back here.”

The settlement was announced late Sunday after a day and a half of talks, the first bargaining since the strike began.

If the contract is approved, union workers will return to the 7 a.m. shift Wednesday. The four-day Thanksgiving break, however, means some workers won’t return until next Monday.

Here are the highlights of the proposed settlement between Boeing and the Machinists:

Employees, for the first time, would be required to contribute to their health insurance premiums, paying $10 a month in health insurance premiums for individuals, $20 for couples and $30 for families. The initial proposal was $15 a month for individuals, $30 for couples and $45 for families.

Employees also would pay medical deductibles of $125 for individuals and $375 for families, less than Boeing’s initial proposal of $225 for individuals and $750 for families.

Boeing would boost its monthly pension benefit contribution from $35 to $40. It originally offered to raise it to $37 a month.

The company agrees to give 90-day advance notice if subcontracting contracts would eliminate 50 or more jobs in the Puget Sound area, 30 or more in Spokane. Machinists also would have the opportunity to bid on work scheduled to be subcontracted.

Laid-off workers would receive a severance package equaling one week of pay for every year of service up to 26 years. Medical coverage would continue for three months.

Machinists would receive an immediate 30-cents-an-hour costof-living allowance on their present average of $20.37 an hour. Under the new contract, the average worker would receive $22.16 an hour in the final year, or $46,100.

No change from the original contract offer to pay Machinists a 5 percent lump sum payable Dec. 1, a 3 percent lump sum next December and a 3 percent general wage increase in the third year of the contract.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Grayden Jones staff writer The Seattle Times contributed to this report.