While Boeing did not specify what would be taken away from Thursday’s offer if it were to fail, Holden said that could mean cutting any number of gains, including canceling a commitment to build the next airplane in the Puget Sound region, backing away from a 38% wage increase or losing a 1% decrease in health care costs.
On Friday, some workers were heeding Holden’s warning. Sitting down for an interview with The Seattle Times, Holden had just finished a Zoom call with more than 500 members who questioned him closely about the new offer and his recommendation to accept it. He had told them about the risk of losing the earlier gains.
The response from those on the call, he said, “led me to believe … they’re looking to accept it.”
For sure, there are still Machinists unwilling to bend. Rob Davis, a 13-year Everett employee, said he’s still a no vote and dismissed the union leadership as “a finger puppet of Boeing.”
Andrew DeFreese, an equipment operator in Everett, said Friday he’s also sticking with his no vote. He wants to hold out for more paid time off and quicker steps to progress through the wage scales.
“The next offer will be regressive.”
That’s not how negotiations work, unless the value of what you are negotiating for went down.
That was a dumb play.
Well it’s an attempt to generate temporal scarcity.
Offer good limited time only.
It’s a big gamble on the “buyer’s” needs
It could go down though. The decision to move products away from that plant can be made and diminish the bartering power of everyone there in favor of more friendly negotiations at another facility.
There is a breaking point. It’s just intentionally hard to know exactly where it is.