Boeing Opens Talks With Machinists

The Boeing Co. and its largest union opened contract talks Friday with the production workers more concerned than ever about job security.

The scenario this time around for the tri-annual talks is an aerospace industry slump that prompted Boeing to jettison thousands of employees and impose an aggressive cost-cutting agenda.

Bill Whitlow, an aerospace analyst for Pacific Crest Securities here, said he thinks members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers “aren’t nearly in as strong a negotiating position as they were” in 1992.

Boeing earnings and production peaked that year, and then took a serious dive, along with the number of jobs at the jetliner builder, he noted.

Although a widely anticipated recovery is in the offing, and orders for jetliners have picked up this year, the industry is still a couple of years away from major improvement, he said.

“Right now the industry’s not particularly healthy,” he said.