Company Says Union Request "Beyond Reasonable"

With a hearing on a labor-law complaint looming next week at the National Labor Relations Board, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union proposed a settlement to Boeing in an effort to organize workers at the new facility. But the planemaker rejected the offer out of hand, saying that the request "went well beyond what we would consider reasonable."

Boeing SC Assembly Plant Aerial View

The Wall Street Journal reports that a Boeing spokesperson said that the union wanted the company to guarantee work at its union shops, including one in the Puget Sound region. However, specific details of the proposal have not been disclosed.

Boeing has consistantly held that it is violating no labor laws by opening the new assembly plant for the Dreamliner in right-to-work South Carolina. And while a company spokesperson said last week that no negotiations were currently ongoing or scheduled, the company was "answering the phones."

The machinists say that Boeing's choice of South Carolina, which has labor laws more favorable to non-union employers, for the second 787 assembly plant is a retaliation against the union for strikes in the company's union shops in Washington State.  The company says it has a right to open a plant where ever it chooses, and is prepared to take its case as far as the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

Meanwhile, the South Carolina assembly plant officially opened Friday.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.goiam.org