Boeing, Union Huddle In Effort To Jump-Start Talks Two Sides Seek Compromise To Help Get Negotiations Back On Track

Silent and expressionless, Boeing Co. and Machinists union negotiators sat together before the cameras Wednesday morning.

Then, first the company team and then the unionists headed to another part of the building, each escorted by federal mediator Ben Youtsey, for their first talks in a month-long strike by Boeing production workers.

The first order of business was a union request for information on medical benefits and subcontracting, the top two issues in the strike and the crux of a complaint issued against Boeing two days earlier by the National Labor Relations Board.

Only after that issue is resolved can contract talks resume, union spokesman Matt Bates said.

“I honestly think we’re going to see some movement. People are really hopeful about this,” Bates said. “We are hopeful, but there are some things that have to happen to get the (contract) talks going.”

Neither Robert Gregory, the union’s chief negotiator, nor Russ Young, a company spokesman, would say how long meetings on the union’s request for information might go. Young and Bates said they did not even know whether the meetings were face-to-face or with each side in separate rooms and Youtsey shuttling back and forth.

A quick settlement appeared unlikely. Late last week, while talks on the Machinists’ request for information were being arranged, union leaders announced plans for a rally with the new AFL-CIO leadership Sunday in Everett.

Pay is the No. 3 issue in a strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents more than 32,000 Boeing riveters, painters, crane operators and other blue-collar workers - 23,500 in the Puget Sound area; 7,200 in Wichita, Kan.; 1,200 in Gresham, Ore., a Portland suburb; and 293 in Spokane. They now make an average of $20.37 an hour.

Negotiations ended Oct. 2, three days before union members voted 78 percent to reject Boeing’s last three-year contract offer. The strike began the next day.

In a related development Wednesday, there were signs of potential trouble in contract talks that began Oct. 23 and cover 12,000 Boeing engineers and scientists and 9,000 technical workers, almost all in the Seattle area.

A statement issued by Charles Bofferding III, executive director of the Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association, said negotiators for the unaffiliated union had hoped to reach agreement on a tentative settlement this week. But he said Boeing appears to be making demands similar to those that contributed to the Machinists’ strike.

“The Boeing Co. went too far on their take-backs in the benefits arena,” Bofferding said. “We’re not certain we will be lifting an offer by Friday or anytime soon.”

John Kvasnosky, a Boeing spokesman, said company negotiators expected to meet the smaller union’s timetable by concluding work on non-economic issues Wednesday and presenting a final offer Friday.

“We feel we’ve been working well with the union,” Kvasnosky said.

The SPEEA contract with Boeing expires Dec. 1.

Boeing requested talks on the Machinists’ information request after John D. Nelson, regional director of the NLRB, decided on Oct. 30 that the strike resulted from unfair labor practices by Boeing.

On Monday, he issued a complaint accusing Boeing of committing labor violations by introducing a sweeping overhaul of medical benefits late in the contract talks, refusing to provide information on the new medical plan or on subcontracting and demanding reductions in medical benefits for retirees although that issue is not a mandatory subject for bargaining.

Boeing has offered to provide more information on the medical plan and withdrew the contract provisions covering retirees but balked at giving more information on subcontracting.