“They’ve got to bring to the table major improvements,” said the union’s chief negotiator, Mark Blondin, at a rally at Boeing’s former Seattle headquarters Thursday morning.

“I know you’ve all been out of work for 34 days now,” he said. “And we’re committed to take 34 more days if necessary.”

Late Wednesday, the union and the company said they were going back to the bargaining table in an effort to work out a new deal. Boeing’s last offer was rejected by 80 percent of union members voting in early September.

News of the new talks came after union leaders Tom Wroblewski and Blondin met Wednesday with Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group President Scott Carson.

Blondin said after his speech that those talks with Carson focused on the union’s concern about job outsourcing.

The union negotiator said the union doesn’t want to make Boeing noncompetitive in the world marketplace as Jim McNerney, the Boeing chairman, suggested Monday in a message to Boeing workers; it just wants a chance to compete for business with other suppliers.

Under the union’s present contract, the company has offered the union the chance to submit proposals on only about 5 percent of the work packages it eventually farms out to other aerospace contractors. The union maintains that the proportion of work available for it to submit proposals for should be greatly expanded.

Several hundred striking Machinists were joined at the rally by members of the Air Line Pilots Association at Alaska and United airlines and by union flight attendants and mechanics from Alaska.

Those unions expressed solidarity with the Machinists.

Among the rank-and-file at the rally, the mood was mixture of optimism and skepticism about the new talks.

“I’m kind of skeptical about what these talks will bring,” said a striking Machinist from Marysville who identified himself only as Bryan.

“After what McNerney said Monday, this could just be posturing for the sake of the stockholders and the customers,” he said.

“I think this is a good thing that’s happening,” said striking union member Robert Evans of Normandy Park. “I hope that they come up with some changes that erase the takeaways in their proposal. I’m particularly concerned about the medical.”

Al Meyers of Des Moines, who works on the flight line at Boeing Field, said he wants to see job security addressed in any revised proposal.

“I hope Boeing understands the true cost of their outsourcing when we get parts from suppliers that have a 50 percent rejection rate,” he said.

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said the company hopes the new talks will be productive. Face-to-face negotiations with a federal mediator, he said, are unlikely to begin until next week at the earliest.

John Gillie: 253-597-8663

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