St. Louis machinists continue to hold the picket line as temperatures drop, standing by firepits to keep them warm Friday – much different conditions from the August heat at the beginning of the strike.
On Sunday, about 3,200 machinists will vote on a modified contract offer from Boeing. This will be the fifth vote in 12 weeks.
Boeing St. Louis Vice President of Air Dominance Dan Gillian said he believes union members will vote yes on the company’s new offer, which adds a year of wage increases for top-paid employees but subtracts from attendance bonuses.
“I am confident that our offer on Sunday will be voted yes because it’s a compelling offer,” Gillian said.
But some members are not convinced that this offer is different from the last one that was rejected.
“I definitely think it’s an insult to the union itself,” said Jeremery Flowers, who plans to vote no on Sunday. “The contract is no different than the last three that they presented to us. The only difference is they just moved numbers around.”
Some members are concerned that the contract still includes a year of frozen wages for top paid employees and did not change the 401(k) plan. Additionally, the contract adds stock shares for members rather than increasing the ratification bonus. Flowers said the amount that will actually be gained from this is uncertain.
“Who knows what the stock is going to be like in three years?” Flowers said. “We can't touch it for three years.”
Originally, union leadership on Wednesday refused to bring the contract to a vote. But one day later, they reversed that decision.
Union shop steward Josh Arnold said he suspects this change was made in response to a letter from Boeing that seemed to threaten unfair labor charges if the union did not vote on the new offer.
“That was probably a consideration that the leadership was like … let's just have a vote and negate the opportunity for them to do that to us,” Arnold said. “That's my suspicion, but I have no evidence other than me looking at a letter from Boeing and then seeing the change of position.”
The most recent vote was held mid-September for a union-proposed contract that passed 90% to 10%, but the company refused that offer.
Arnold said the difference in cost to Boeing from that contract and the company-proposed one being voted on Sunday is about $50 million, which is half of the company’s earnings from one F-15 fighter jet.
Boeing St. Louis factories produce about 96 F-15s per year.
“What we’re asking for is a fraction of 1% of just the F-15 program,” Arnold said. “And their response to that was the same week that my one-year-old son said his first word, they cut his healthcare.”
Arnold’s family was able to get on his wife’s healthcare plan, but some union members are paying 25-hundred dollars a month for health insurance.
Arnold said if he had to make a prediction, he thinks the offer will be rejected.
“From the interactions that I have had in the last, maybe, week or so, I think people are more upset than they were before,” Arnold said.
He said he will be voting no.
Members will vote Sunday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at IAM District 9 in Bridgeton.
