Boeing and Machinist union leaders moved Friday to address concerns among some rank-and-file members of the union about the terms of the historic deal announced this week, and to urge a yes vote next Wednesday.
The union leadership expects the agreement to be ratified in that vote, which would provide a jolt of good news for Washington state’s economy.
Mark Blondin, the IAM’s national aerospace coordinator, said that at a local lodge meeting in Seattle on Thursday night, attended by about 300 union members, those present asked a lot of detailed questions and that the response was generally positive and respectful.
Yet ratification by the 28,000 members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) bargaining unit in Washington, Oregon and Kansas is not guaranteed.
Some unease with the wording of the agreement has surfaced among union members in the two days since they learned the details.
One veteran Machinist said union members on the shop floor were concerned about the language that commits Boeing to building the next version of the 737, the MAX, in Renton.
The commitment has a qualifying phrase: Boeing commits to build the 737 “in Renton, to the extent such production can be feasibly completed in the current and existing 737 Renton production facilities.” Similar phrasing is used in Boeing’s commitment to fabricate 737 MAX parts in Auburn, Frederickson and Portland.
Some Machinists read this as limiting the amount of 737 MAX work that will be located within the state because the “current and existing” plant in Renton is a fraction of its former size, with little room to expand.
“Why is there no public, written commitment to build whatever facilites may prove necessary to ensure the 737MAX production will indeed be feasible in the Puget Sound region?” asked the Machinist, who asked not to be identified.
Another person said this wording could be a loophole that in the future would allow Boeing to build another 737 MAX assembly line outside Washington state, likely at its South Carolina site, even if Renton remains the main site of production.
Such “dual sourcing” is exactly what Boeing is doing with the 787 Dreamliner.
Blondin in an interview Friday said the union can’t stop Boeing placing work wherever it chooses. “The company has always had the right to place work,” he said.
However, he said, the qualifying phrase in the agreement commits the company do as much 737 MAX work as possible here – at the Renton assembly plant and at the local parts plants that currently build the wings and other 737 sections.
“That piece of language means to fill it up,” Blondin said. “The deal commits Boeing to fill Renton to capacity, to fill Auburn to capacity, to fill Frederickson to capacity, to fill Portland to capacity.”
The Renton plant currently is rolling out 35 airplanes a month on a super-efficient moving assembly line, and Boeing is targeting to produce 42 per month and beyond there.
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