Union says Boeing strike is about contractors

What’s interesting in the Boeing situation, he says, is that the company is doing well financially and can’t fill airplane orders fast enough.

Boeing actually has been burned previously, he says, when it subcontracted out work to other countries and ended up with quality issues and major production delays. Problems with the much-delayed 787 Dreamliner program have been blamed in part on managing a global supply network that has included possibly more outsourcing than on any previous model.

Mobley surmises Boeing is pushing the in-house contractor issue while it is flush because it wants to keep its options open when times get tough in the future.

“Once labor gets something, they don’t want to give it up,” Mobley says.

The same could be said of Boeing management.

After 9/11, when Boeing was hurt by the sharp downturn in the airline industry, the company won contract modifications that opened the door to more outsourcing. Now that Boeing's has rebounded the company is extremely reluctant to give up those rights.

“It doesn't make sense to change the rules that have allowed us to be successful,” says Boeing’s Healy.

Healy says the company's use of contractors is not meant to replace union jobs.

“Boeing has a history of pretty dramatic swings in hiring people and laying off people, so one of the things that outsourcing does is allows us to retain the core most experienced, most skilled people we need and make sure their jobs are going to continue," he says.

The union isn’t buying it. Blondin points out that in 2002 about 62 percent of union members voted to reject the contract offered by Boeing, but that fell short of the 68 percent needed to authorize a strike. So the contract eventually was approved.

But this time around, 80 percent of union members backed their union leaders and rejected Boeing's contract offer.

What the union now wants, Blondin says, is a chance to build a case to Boeing that its members can do the same work as contractors but more efficiently.

“Give us a voice to say we can be that much more successful,” says Blondin. He says the union's members are prepared for a long strike if necessary: "We’ve stayed out two to three months in the past.”

Regardless of how the Boeing strike turns out, labor advocates acknowledge that the trend to use contingent workers is well-entrenched and unlikely to be reversed anytime soon.

It’s a fight between the flexibility that comes with a contingency workforce, and the security that comes with a full-time job with benefits and good pay, according to Vanderbilt’s Cornfield.

The outcome, he says, will depend in part on how successful unions will be in organizing the nation’s workers beyond the manufacturing sector.

“As long as it’s Boeing workers fighting alone, there will be a tough road to go,” he says.

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