Boeing layoffs face challenge; machinists say contract was violated
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Boeing today is issuing 60-day layoff warnings to 1,737 workers nationwide, including 1,287 locally. This brings to 16,637 the number of jobs Boeing has slated for cuts since Oct. 12. Some 12,000 of those workers already have left the company.
The latest tally includes layoffs of 753 members of Machinist Dist. 751 in the Puget Sound area. Machinists have accounted for 5,100, or 62 percent, of Boeing's 8,200 layoff notices in the region.
Yesterday, the union filed two separate charges with Boeing, contending some layoffs shouldn't have happened. It claims Boeing violated language in the Machinists labor contract by displacing union jobs after shifting work to contractors and suppliers.
This is the Machinists' most visible attempt to enforce certain "no-layoffs" job-security clauses under its 1999 labor agreement, which the union's then-president hailed as the "best contract in aerospace" and which took the union to the brink of a strike before it was ratified.
Boeing and the Machinists union are preparing to renegotiate the contract, which expires in September.
"The union can have the best contract language in the world, but if Boeing chooses to ignore it, we have to pursue justice in the legal arena," Dist. 751 President Mark Blondin said in a statement.
Cris McHugh, a Boeing spokeswoman, said the company has not seen the grievances but believes "we are honoring all our commitments outlined in the contract."
The Machinists' mostly blue-collar members have been hardest hit by Boeing's massive downsizing. Dist. 751 represents more Boeing workers locally than any other union. But it may lose that distinction to the engineering union at Boeing if the layoff pattern continues.
Last Friday, 2,725 local Machinist members were laid off, reducing to 22,075 the number of active workers represented by the union in the region. On the same day, 400 of the 19,500 local members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) were scheduled to be laid off.
Boeing will announce additional job cuts monthly until it reaches its target of 25,000 to 30,000 by the middle of next year. The next round will be announced Jan. 18.
Workers receiving layoff notices today will work their final shift Feb. 22.
One of yesterday's grievances involves an issue already pending before a federal arbitrator. In that case, the union is arguing Boeing violated the contract by displacing Machinists workers in Renton when it decided to transfer 757-fuselage work to its plant in Wichita, Kan.
The Wichita workers belong to the Machinists union, and any resulting job losses in the Seattle area would be exempt from the no-layoffs clause.
However, the union contends Boeing also is shifting some 757 fuselage-panel work from Wichita to a Boeing parts supplier, Alenia of Italy, and thus is sending the Renton jobs outside the company.
The union also is challenging layoffs among tooling workers in Kent as well as electricians, maintenance mechanics, carpenters and other facilities employees it contends lost their jobs to contract workers.
Kyung Song can be reached at 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com.