Boeing, Machinists to Resume Talks
According to the Wall Street Journal:
Boeing Co. and its striking machinists union will resume negotiations on Thursday in the presence of a federal mediator, the latest attempt to resolve a protracted walkout that is now in its seventh week.
According to people familiar with the situation, Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers agreed to new talks Monday, following repeated conversations with officials from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The negotiations will be held at the mediation service's offices in Washington, D.C.
The new round of talks will mark the second time since the strike began that mediators have attempted to reach a settlement on a proposed three-year contract. Last week, two days of talks broke down after both sides refused to back away from their positions on the union's demands for greater job security. The union's 27,000 machinists walked off the job on Sept. 6.
Unlike previous strikes at Boeing, issues such as wages and pension payments have taken a back seat in recent years to subtle changes in contract language that enable Boeing to use contractors to replace union workers in certain jobs.
Union leaders say that under Boeing's proposed language, as many as 2,000 workers now involved in jobs related to packaging and delivering aircraft components could be replaced by contractors in coming years.
Boeing officials have balked at the union's calls for language that would guarantee jobs to those workers, saying they need the flexibility to react to an increasingly competitive industry. A company spokesman on Monday said Boeing officials are "obviously keen to end this strike, but we need to be sure we retain the ability to run this business as we see fit"...click to continue.
